Playhouse West’s “What the Night is For” ponders the proverbial question: What if?

By Stephanie Wright Hession
Arts and Culture Writer

Eleven years after the end of their torrid affair, Melinda "Lindy" Metz (Lois Grandi) and Adam Penzius (Marvin Greene) reunite. Claiming he's in town for a meeting with a client, Adam calls Lindy after more than a decade. A teacher attending an educational conference, she invites him to her hotel room for dinner. Why the phone call and the desire to meet after all these years? And why does she accept his invitation? So begins Playhouse West's production and the Northern California premiere of Michael Weller's "What the Night is For." A taunt, emotional tale directed by Ray Reinhardt, it deals with issues including passion vs. practicality and decisions vs. regrets. Ultimately it asks the question: If given a second chance in life, would one take it or squander it away?

Aside from being a teacher, Lindy's also long since married and a mother of two teenage boys. Her husband's a well-known Midwestern bicycle heir named Hugo, a jealous, embittered man who blames her for his shortcomings. Their marriage consists of empty routines mixed with enraged arguments although it lacks passion. Adam's an established New York City architect who's married with a young son. Despite a successful career, a New York brownstone and a summer home in Pennsylvania, he remains emotionally unfulfilled. His wife, a former professional dancer, remains physically beautiful but emotionally distant. Engrossed in her marketing business she makes no time for him or their son.

Driven by loneliness, Lindy and Adam initially appear awkward when they first see each other again. But they soon relax as they reminisce about their days together in New York. There, they met at a book circle but end up on a sofa bed in his office-more than once. At the time she's a poet, a young wife and a mother; he's a young guy living with the woman who eventually becomes his wife.

Each offers differing memories of the same events and their images of one another contradict those they hold of themselves. When they first met Adam viewed Lindy as what he calls, a ravishing woman with a grown up life-complete with two toddlers and a husband who works on Wall Street. She's impressed with whom she refers to as the hippest, hottest architect in Tribecastan. Adam remembers an idyllic affair while Lindy insists the opposite, since they didn't figure out how to make their relationship permanent. Now, while Lindy admits to being discontented she's built a life for herself-however dull-and doesn't want to risk it by rekindling their romance. For Adam, he seeks both closure and new beginnings. She never said goodbye to him in New York and now he's wondering if perhaps she can fill the ongoing void in his life. What will each reveal? What will each decide? Only the night ahead holds the answers.

Lois Grandi portrays Lindy Metz with sophisticated elegance and style. She's effervescent and engaging as this highly intelligent and frustrated character. With his clean-cut good looks, Marvin Greene plays the restless, wistful and forlorn Adam Penzius with compassion and seductive, charismatic appeal. With the entire story taking place on one set fashioned after an elegant hotel room, Grandi and Greene carry "What the Night is For" beautifully. Their stamina proves impressive and they manage to keep most of the audience's attention for the entire length of the production. Performing the play in the intimate Knight Stage 3 Theatre allows the audience to almost feel a part of the drama due to its close proximity to the actors and the stage.

"What the Night is For" plays through Feb. 19 in the Knight Stage 3 Theatre at the Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts, 1601 Civic Drive in Walnut Creek. Ticket prices range from $28 to $31. For tickets call 925-943-SHOW or visit www.playhousewest.org.