Fringe Review

Playwright: Mike Rice

Dive Buddies is the type of show you need to slowly decompress from, or you may suffer a case of the emotional bends. A dark dramedy of two salt and peppered lovers reuniting under tumultuous circumstances after a near fatal deep sea diving incident sunk their relationship a year and a half ago, this show begins with a climax, but often loses focus on the way to its dramatic end. Written by local playwright Mike Rice, following last year’s explosive political thriller The Enemies From Within, Dive Buddies reverses course to smaller stakes, but has an equally twisted and dark take on an intimate situation. Played gamely by performers Tim Ahlenius and Renee Morrison, both command the stage as David and Lacey, in various stages of undress, passion, paranoia, and violence.

After an incident with a current partner goes sour, Lacey reconnects with David in an impulsive moment of sexual revenge. Much like their favorite scuba related hobby, the more we dive deeper into their personalities, the more we can observe what made their relationship fall apart before this fateful reunion. David depicts himself himself a more practical, empathetic man that doesn’t want to dive deep past his comfort level in any situation; while Lacey is portrayed a more instinctual, self taught individual. Her seeming over-confidence in her holistic remedies, diving capabilities, also makes her want to submerge herself (and others) into her issues too deeply, too fast. But as her bravada begins to crack under pressure, it reveals an insecurity, selfishness and trauma that increases in their post-coitus clarity. As their rash actions and potential consequences begin to dawn on them, the dynamic changes in the room to dangerous levels. There’s a reason both of these characters have remained single into their mid-50s.

With solid direction by Scott Cordes and intimacy coordination by Ashley Kay, while the nudity and sexual moments never felt overly gratuitous, how much they enhanced the play was also debatable. Two-thirds of the play has a sort of lighter, playfully dirty dialogue between the two that goes in and out of focus, until the final third increases the stakes and toxicity of the relationship up to eleven. While I believe Renee was excellent in the role, a part of me has more mixed feelings about the character of Lacey herself; it seems like her fixation on the holistic is meant to be an early indicator of a loose connection to reality, as well as other flaws that flare up as the night goes on. Tim as David plays David as a kind of noncommital man who will try to rationalize his way out of a bad situation, but cannot escape his own irrational desires. A messy sexual drama where the people are as twisted as the bedsheets they lie in, viewer discretion is advised.