If you're in the mood for an edgy sexy story of lives intersecting in modern London, do
see Tender, currently being performed by the Syzygy Theatre Group in Burbank

Tender's British playwright, Abi Morgan, is clearly a talent to reckoned with. Her
characters are flawed but very real human beings, and in their search for human
tenderness, you will recognize yourself and the people you know in them.

The first thing one notices when entering Burbank's GTC Theater is Dan Jenkins'
ingenious set design, which features a pair of rapidly opening/closing subway doors
through which characters enter, cross paths, meet, and then depart as quickly as
they arrived.  London life is like that, fast moving, impersonal, rough at times.
Dramatic sound and lighting  contribute greatly to the feeling of urban grit.

Director Che'Rae Adams has assembled a brilliant cast of actors for this production:
Judy Blue, Amy Honey, Ryan Honey, Shawn MacAulay, Jennifer Pennington, William
Salyers, Mark McClain Wilson.  Each creates a distinctly memorable character, and
the various British accents are as good as any I've ever heard.  (I actually stuck
around the stage door after curtain just to hear a few of the actors' real voices, so
believable were they as Londoners.)  Pennington, as Tash, a woman who treats men
like dirt, deserves special mention for giving one of the finest performances you'll ever
see on an L.A. stage. You'd swear you were watching a younger sexier Judy Dench in
an acting tour de force likely to be remembered at awards time. 

Kudos too to Syzygy for their decision to sign a special 99-Seat-Plan contract with
Actors' Equity in order to pay their actors a good deal more than pocket change
they would normally receive! If they're even half as good as Tender, I look forward to
upcoming Syzygy productions very much indeed!

Plays until Sunday March 31, 2007 at GTC Burbank, 1111-B West Olive, in Burbank, CA.
Reservations at (323) 254-9328 or at www.syzygytheatre.org

--Steven Stanley