Chez Robert Giron

Adam Rapp's play Red Light Winter is quite a shocker both in terms of the superb performances by actors Jason Fleitz, William Peden, and Regina Aquino but also because of the lingering power of the play itself.

This is not a play for your teenager or your parents if they are the least shocked at nudity or "red light" goings and comings.

But if you are wanting a play that is not the typical stayed Death Trap or such, then I strongly recommend that you get yourself down to The Studio Theatre and see this play.

Rapp's language is fresh and the twists in the action still linger even after I saw the play on Thursday night. While in the shower, it suddenly hit me how the main character, played by Jason Fleitz, might have gotten his strange ailment which plagued him for months. Fleitz, who gives an extremely strong performance, as Matt is enthralled by off beat writers such as Frederick Exley, who wrote A Fan's Notes and whose main character is rather disgusting. The fact that William Peden as Davis can make the audience like him in spite of his true character is truly a tour-de-force. In the end, we wonder if we might like Jason might be holding onto friends or family for the wrong reasons.

I cannot leave this play without saying that Regina Aquino as Christina put her whole essence on the stage for the audience to take her in. Aquino wraps us around her finger, sort of speak, and we are taken by her beauty and tragedy at the same time.

All three actors are stellar in this play which works on different levels. The dialog is not forced and the tightness of the script is so amazing that I want to see more of Rapp's plays.

Finally, a stage is simply a platform without a director and Joy Zinoman who has won several Helen Hays Awards is able to charm the cobra such that the audience is not aware that they have been bitten until after they leave the theatre. That the actors in tandem with the director and playwright can work this magic is something to applaud.

Click here to visit The Studio Theatre's website and to buy tickets:
TheStudioTheatre