With only two main characters and a beige couch, Little Bear Ridge Road, a new play by Samuel D. Hunter (The Whale and FX’s Emmy Award winning show Baskets) depends entirely on language, script and acting. Fortunately, the writing is so good and the acting so outstanding that the play works extremely well.

The drama stars the superb Laurie Metcalf, known for her work onstage as well as on television (A Doll’s House, Part II, Misery, The Other Place, Roseanne and Hacks). The play is like a masterclass in acting. In Little Bear Ridge Road, she plays Sarah, a nurse, yet we see little softness or compassion from her. Despite the pathos in the story of two lonely people and the specter of cancer, Metcalf mines humor through her tone and posture. Caustic, yet bluntly honest, she can make us laugh, even when offering a cup of coffee.

Sarah’s brother Leon has died and Ethan, his only child, comes to sell his house. Leon turned to drugs after his wife left him and their ten year old son. Ethan (excellent Micah Stock) resents Sarah for not rescuing him from his meth-addicted father. She shows no remorse but just acknowledges that she's failed him. She claims that she used to take the long way around on her way home just to check on him.

Ethan is like the walking wounded with a list of grievances about his sorry past. A large portly actor, Stock slouches and appears slightly unkempt. His body image reflects how he feels about himself. After getting his MFA, he began to write ‘auto-fiction.” “None of it is directly autobiographical but my main characters are based on parts of myself,” Ethan explains to his aunt “I guess—I realized I didn’t like my main characters.”

Realizing that Ethan has no money, no job and has broken up with his boyfriend, Sarah insists that he stay in her spare room. He’s concerned that she is uncomfortable with his being gay, but she tells him that his being gay is “the only thing interesting about him.”

They obviously care about one another but can’t find a way to connect. So they find artificial ways to try to bond. They sit together on a nondescript beige couch and watch a TV show called “Extraterrestrials.” Are the characters aliens or not? They won’t find out till the show ends, butit gives them something to share.

They remain distant and the only mood shift in the play is when Ethan connects with James (endearing John Drea) online and they meet in a bar.
Despite a disastrous first-meeting (Is it a date or a hook-up?) they begin a relationship. Ethan is resistant, which is the one false note in the play. Quite frankly, it's difficult to see the two of them together but James’ presence changes the dynamics of the play.

Once Ethan's dad's house is sold, Ethan remains when he sees some medical bills and learns that Sarah has cancer. Ethan has nothing to return to in Seattle, so he finds his purpose, caring for his aunt who doesn't want him there.

Sarah is angry and belligerent. One of the most compelling moments of the play is when Sarah is on the phone trying to get some results of medical tests. It’s a feeling we all can identify with." You just tell me what the fucking results are because for them it’s all just paperwork, I am just paperwork to them, I’m a number on a fucking chart and an eventual statistic about cumulative deaths in Idaho for the year subsection cancer subsection colon cancer subsection female and then THAT’S IT! THAT’S ALL THAT I AM! THAT’S ALL I WILL EVER BE.”

Director Joe Mantello gets incredibly rich performances from his skilled actors. Metcalf has impeccable comic timing and we laugh at lines that on paper wouldn’t raise a chuckle. Her physical motions create humor as well-whether it’s wielding the vacuum as a weapon or meeting Ethan’s boyfriend.
Little Bear River Ridge reminds us that theater is more than glitter and glitz; there's a beautiful touching drama in the simple coming together of two lonely people.