Williamston Theatre wraps up season with flawless finish

“Be Here Now,” by Deborah Zoe Laufer, running at the Williamston Theatre through Aug. 20, is a strong showing by all involved. I highly recommend seeing this production, though it deals frankly with someone experiencing cancer and also mentions a family tragedy, so maybe leave the kids at home.

The play’s protagonist, Bari (Sarab Kamoo), is a doctoral student who’s having trouble completing her dissertation on nihilism. She relocates from New York to fictional small-town Coopersville and gets a job at a fulfillment center to make ends meet.  

Bari is witty and sardonic, even abrasive to those around her, but she eventually builds a rapport with her co-workers Patty Cooper (Sandra Birch) and Luanne Cooper (Sophia Psiakis), who try to set her up with the town’s most eligible bachelor, Patty’s cousin Mike Cooper (John Lepard). 

Meanwhile, Bari has been experiencing increasingly intense headaches and seizures, the significance of which she diminishes to herself and those around her because as her illness intensifies, she begins to feel like a new and better person. The play deals with the transformation of Bari’s personality through illness, distrust of medication and friendship. Bari perceives her illness as an enlightening epiphany and is desperate to hold onto her spells, no matter the cost.

Kamoo continues to make a strong mark on professional stages with her incandescent performance as Bari. Life throws the character a monkey wrench in the shape of a “kiwi-sized tumor,” which changes her priorities and perspectives and causes her to experience life in an entirely new way. Kamoo’s strengths include intensity, suddenness and unpredictability, which she uses to great effect in this production. One of the most technically difficult things for an actor to do is to play through emotional and intellectual material while also presenting physical pain and discomfort, and most actors get stuck ‘showing’ you their malady without paying attention to the intellectual and emotional notes of a scene, but Kamoo masterfully juggles it all, and her performance alone is worth the price of admission.

Lepard is clear and direct in his portrayal of Mike Cooper. Subtle, deft and consistent, his sure handling of several sensitive scenes helps elevate the entire production. Lepard has strength and quiet assurance borne of success, confidence and intense suffering, and this may be my favorite performance yet, as he hardly seems to be working at all. If I didn’t know better, I would believe that his character portrayal was the “real him.” As an actor myself, I plan to see this play again so I can fully digest the scope of Lepard’s skills. His first entrance alone, though practically silent, is one of the funniest I’ve seen.

Birch returns to the stage with another well-performed, down-to-earth character, Patty Cooper, who uses homespun humor and a handy recall of astrology to guide and advise her friends. It’s easy to sink toward low humor and buffoonery in this type of role, but Birch keeps her characterization grounded in honest reality, allowing her to mine strong laughs while also packing an emotional heft. She knows how to deliver a punchline, and her performance features great pacing and strong vocal choices.

Psiakis brings plenty of sauce and pep to her performance as Luanne Cooper. While gradually revealing her character’s perceptiveness and empathy, Psiakis shows a charming ability to easily sum up complex emotions. She infuses her character with sweetness and simplicity and quietly makes her points stick. Psiakis has a deft touch with thrown-away lines that shows depth and assurance.

The cast’s chemistry is wonderful throughout the production, but the first scene between Lepard and Kamoo, with multiple awkward overlaps and interruptions, features some of the best acting I’ve seen in years. Kudos to director Rob Roznowski for setting the table for these outstanding performances.