Review: Dancing Lessons at Lionwoman Productions TX

Mark St. Germain’s Dancing Lessons, now playing at Match via Lionwoman Productions TX, is what you’d call Sweet.

This pleasant rom-com takes a very serious subject, Asperger’s syndrome, a neuro-developmental disorder now considered within the autistic spectrum, and treats it with a light touch. It works, like some modern day fairy tale, although the emotional changes come a touch too quick.

Ever (Brad Goertz, in a phenomenally sympathetic portrayal) wants to dance at his own awards ceremony but is seriously concerned over having to touch somebody. “I don’t like to be touched,” he yells out to Senga (Katrina Ellsworth), a Broadway dancer who’s suffered a possible career-ending accident after a car smashed into her on the sidewalk. Living in the same apartment building, he has a proposal for her and a huge payout if she teaches him how to dance without attracting unwanted attention. One hour is all he demands of her.

Naturally she is skeptical of this strange man who says whatever is on his mind no matter the consequences. He’s not kidding, he just can’t control himself. Germain’s soft comedy builds from this, and the dialogue is paced with many non sequiturs and twists as Ever misinterprets or reads everything at face value. It’s rather charming, because you know these two will open up each other and eventually find a kind of peace, if not romance, through this odd-couple pairing.

With short scenes – his lectures at the university, her phone calls from her aunt, and some dance moves – they do eventually warm to each other. Of course, we expect this from the get-go. They probe, jab at each other, discover layers. What’s the point of a rom-com if these two disparate people can’t get together?

There are two very fine scenes in which Germain finds the sweet spot. Ever is ready if not absolutely comfortable for an attempt at a physical example of a handshake, then an air kiss, and finally a hug. He has a physical reaction to Senga that he can’t control. “You excited me,” he says bashfully while turned against the wall. “Mentally?,” Senga asks. “No, lower,” he confesses. The bedroom scene soon follows. Senga blows the dust off a condom and in darkness, except for a flashlight, they connect. Whether this would ever happen to someone with Asperger’s I couldn’t say, but the audience is primed for this. We root for it. There were appreciative “ahhs” from the row behind me.

Director Michelle Britton keeps the comedy and the pathos on a comfy edge. Only 90 minutes without intermission, the play flows. Edgar Guajardo’s studio apartment set and lighting design is first-rate, and the sound design from Hayley Christensen is spot-on.

Ellsworth, who looks like a dancer, is astringent from the start but softens near the end. Granted, her character is facing life-threatening surgery for her shattered knee and she’s allergic to anesthesia, so she’s allowed to be a bit brittle, but then there’s her family dysfunction that’s treated a bit perfunctorily to add to her problems. She seems more damaged than Ever.

But it’s Goertz who holds this play together and gives it its heart. What a committed performance. Known as the Tyrannosaurus Nerd, with his shirt buttoned up to the neck, his eyes dart around the room or look down whenever he makes contact with Senga; he moves in spurts, uncomfortable in everyday movement; he talks in an unnatural cadence, always thinking ahead of what he wants to say, or blurting out what he’s thinking. It’s a very finely etched performance, utterly believable and thoroughly empathetic.

What doesn’t work so well is the character of the Dancer (Adrienne Shearer) who is the avatar of Senga. Either before or after various scenes, she dances Senga’s emotional state. Why is she here? Germain already tells us what Senga is feeling, we don’t need some superfluous layer to tell us again. The best use of the Dancer is after the sex scene, when she appears with wide smile and red boa to perform a Jules Feifferesque “Dance to Spring.” The audience got it.

As the second production from Lionwoman (last season’s intriguing Jacobean historical drama Playhouse Creatures was the company’s premiere), Dancing Lessons is an hors d’oeurve. We want more from them. Any new Houston theater company is welcomed. Come back soon.

Dancing Lessons continues through September 21 at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 3 p.m. Sundays; 6 p.m. Sunday, September 14; 7:30 p.m. Monday, September 15; and 2 p.m. Saturday, September 20 at Lionwoman Productions at MATCH, 3400 Main. For more information, call 713-521-4533 or visit matchhouston.org. $25-$35.