★★✰✰✰
The feel of the Oxford Arms in Camden is intimate and friendly. After warm chitchat with strangers about the Camden Fringe Festival and frothing half-pints, we make our way to the Etcetera Theatre upstairs. We are given a American reflection of our downstairs preamble, except something is off. Everything is off. Jean (Maisie Norma Seaton) and her boyfriend, Bo (Esmonde Cole), are awaiting the arrival of Ted (Saul Barrett) before a high school reunion. Every few minutes, the convoluted haze of sexual tension and repressed trauma looms over the scene. This is how Nurit Chinn and Maxi Himpe’s Best of Three begins.
A modest theatre above a pub is a fitting venue. The actors have a command of the atmosphere that is at once inviting and claustrophobic. Seaton gives an electric performance of Jean, a restless woman haunted by her past. Frustration is constantly simmering beneath her flirtation and her antagonisms of both Bo and Ted. As the men revisit their conquests on the football field and enduring challenges of physical prowess, Jean feels left out and bored, the one feeling she cannot stand.
Ted’s recent breakup with his high-school sweetheart and lapse in mental stability adds a dangerous flare to his immediate chemistry with Jean. Barrett gives an energetic performance that flits between an oblivious jock and perpetual confusion of a disenchanted student. Ted’s college experience hit him hard and after his breakup, he does not feel confident with women and needs Bo to encourage him. Jean asks invasive questions and cuts to Ted’s core with the scathing remark: “being passive is the worst thing a person can be”.
Bo is a humble voice of reason, having returned from Princeton to his hometown without much explanation. He is content, reigns Jean in when she pushes too hard, and hates revisiting the past. And you can see why: combining his version of events with Ted’s creates uncomfortable conversations, leaving jealousy and shattered egos behind. It’s truly a shame that when we are about to see Bo’s character thrive, the script becomes foggy and overly ambiguous.
The majority of Chinn’s writing sets up some delicious dramatic conflict. The sexual undercurrent between the three of them and difficult dialogue was en route to lead up to some sort of explanation or conclusion. Bo and Ted panic together about what they did to Jean (at this point, we can’t be sure whether this is in the past or the present). Bo’s character takes a dark turn, insisting that everything is fine when clearly, they have inflicted some traumatic abuse on Jean. We are not sure what has happened at the climax of the play, which is where things start to falter.
The last 20 minutes of Best of Three include flashback audio of a traumatic event, but we are not sure whose. We can assume that Jean is sitting on the toilet while the audio of drawn out dialogue from the high school reunion blares in the background. The audio quality leaves much to be desired; these conversations feel important, but it is difficult to hear what is being said. Jean’s scrubbing of the toilet lid does little to enlighten us as to what happened. Whether she is haunted by some trauma from her past or something happened between her and the guys that night is unclear.
With astounding actors and a dynamic setup, Best of Three nearly offered a nuanced, dark insight into trauma and memory. Unfortunately, the ending falls short, leaving us with too many questions as to what even happened. The play is on its way to being a brilliant piece but the ending ended up feeling confused and disoriented.
Words by Elizabeth Sorrell
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