All bets are off from the moment 17-year-old Susan arrives at 31-year-old Todd’s one-bedroom apartment for her first SAT tutoring session because if you think you know where things are going in Blue Kiss, Stephen Fife’s riveting two-hander now getting its World Premiere at the Ruskin Group Theatre, you’ve got another thing coming.

That doesn’t mean you won’t be adding up the clues from the get-go.

Why, for instance, did Susan (Carolina Rodriguez) insist that they meet in Todd’s (Casey Morris) “personal sanctuary” and not in a more chaperoned place, like the house she shares with her grandmother?

Why too should Susan be concerned about her essay skills when the sample she reads aloud to Todd already reveals her to be a promising and perhaps even gifted writer?

And what’s up with Susan’s interest in Todd’s relationship (or lack of such) with his 17-year-old high-school quarterback brother Mitchell, whom Todd has scarcely seen since heading off to college for reasons the elder sibling is reluctant to reveal.

There’s also the matter of Susan’s own back story, one involving a personal tragedy she’s only too willing to share with a virtual stranger.

All of this adds up to seventy-five of the edgiest and most suspenseful minutes you’re likely to spend in a theater anytime soon, and never more so than when Susan suddenly…

Workshopped as far back as its 2013 Hollywood Fringe Festival debut and its 2019 return to the Fringe, Blue Kiss now gets the most polished of World Premieres as the inaugural production of the Ruskin’s 65-seat Audre Stage, one that has been directed with razor-sharp precision by Mike Reilly.

Still, as vital as script and direction are in a two-character play, Blue Kiss might still miss the mark with a less than ideally cast Susan and Todd, and in the equally electrifying Rodriguez and Morris, Fife and Reilly have hit the bullseye twice.

Rodriguez’s Susan may seem harmless at first glance, but there’s an enigmatic air about her that has us wondering from the get-to if this seemingly unthreatening young woman might just be a loose cannon about to go off at any second.

With his curly mop of hair, scholar’s glasses, and gentle demeanor, Morris’s open-faced Todd certainly looks like he wouldn’t hurt a fly, but is Todd really as harmless as he seems? What secrets might he be hiding behind those bespectacled blue eyes?

If you expect me to answer any of those questions here, you’re sorely mistaken.

What I will tell you is that not only does Blue Kiss feature couldn’t-be-better direction and performances, the up-close-and-personal Audre Stage has us almost within touching distance of Ryan Wilson’s effectively designed apartment set, one that has been expertly lit by Edward Salas who doubles as the most bang-up of sound designers.

Blue Kiss is produced by John Ruskin, Michael R. Myers, and Nicole Millar. Casting is by Victoria Hoffman. Judith Borne is publicist.

Blue Kiss is hardly the first two-hander to feature an older male teacher and a younger female student. It’s too potentially explosive a set-up not to have inspired multiple iterations, most notably David Mamet’s Oleanna.

To their ranks can now be added Stephen Fife’s Blue Kiss, a suspense-packed two-hander that kept me glued to the edge of my seat from its intriguing start to its shocker of a finish.

Ruskin Group Theatre, 2800 Airport Avenue, Santa Monica.
www.ruskingrouptheatre.com

–Steven Stanley
April 25, 2026
Photos: Amelia Mulkey

Visit www.theatreinla.com/nowplayingrs.php for a review roundup of what’s now playing in theaters around Los Angeles.

Tags: Los Angeles Theater Review, Ruskin Group Theatre, Stephen Fife