So Very 'True' to Life

Among the Hollywood theater offerings of late 2004 was a tale of authorial rivalry called "That May Well Be True," which hinged on the question: When does a story stop being just a story and make the leap to art? Similarly, a new staging of the play, by the Ruskin Group in Santa Monica, hinges not so much on Jay Reiss' deft but unassuming little story as on the art made of it by director Paul Linke and three utterly in-the-moment actors.

After a gap of more than a dozen years, Peter (Markus Flanagan), a novelist whose newest book is generating award buzz, pays a visit to boyhood pal Russell (Robert Gantzos). It's not a social call. Russell, whose self-defeatihg behavior has undermined his own dreams of being a writer, has initiated legal proceedings, claiming that the novel's events were cribbed. Reunited in Russell's living room, the onetime friends slip back into their youthful routine, sometimes slumped on the couch in good-natured reverie, sometimes squaring off as though ready to tear each other limb from limb. Russell's level-headed housemate, Joy (Kristina Lear), tries to remain neutral but inevitably figures into a re-emerging one-upmanship.

Beneath the surface of Reiss' free-and-easy dialogue runs a deeper content of emotion, so subtly and realistically conveyed that we theatergoers feel like voyeurs stashed among the shelves of books and recordings. Watching c1osely, we see a sense of loss wash the cocky smirk off Russell's face, and in that moment we instinctively realize that what he wants even more than a cut of the novel is Peter's acknowledgement that they once shared something genuine and rare.

Interest in the Ruskin presentation may be driven by the fact that, soon after the 2004 staging, Reiss earned wider renown as a contributor to and orgiinal cast member of the New York musical "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee." But the production is its own reward.