THEATER REVIEW | 'THE SAFETY NET'

A Still Midlife, With Crisis

By JASON ZINOMAN

Published: September 27, 2005

David, an immigration lawyer very close to making partner, says he is absolutely brilliant at filling out forms. Played by Jason Pugatch, who has the Midwestern good looks of Will Ferrell, he has accepted boredom as his lot in life. Christopher Kyle's "Safety Net," a thoughtful midlife-crisis drama that touches on everything from the racial prejudices of the liberal elite to the nature-nurture debate, is a portrait of a man going through the motions.

 "Do you ever feel like we're just sitting next to each other on a plane, passing time, amusing each other?" asks his neurotic wife, Sonya (Eva Kaminsky, in a splendid turn). "But when we land we'll go in opposite directions and never meet again."

Obviously, there's trouble here, but everything changes when David's brother dies in a drunk-driving accident, leaving behind a pregnant African-American fiancée. After first suspecting that LaShonda (Tinashe Kajese) wanted to extort money from his parents, David decides to find ways to help her. First it's small favors like buying groceries, but soon he's buying her a car and organizing his schedule around visits to see her. David may be trying to make up for mistakes he made with his brother, who was adopted, or he may be taking his place.

Credit the director, Martha Banta, with a brisk and finely tuned production, assisted by J. Wiese's crafty design, a black box with walls that fold out into beds and clocks. Mark Setlock offers a funny turn as a friend, Rick, who still says "awesome" and brags about his schoolboy conquests. Mr. Pugatch projects the right blandness for David, though one wishes his performance developed as much as the character does.

The playwright hints at a number of twists to send you reeling. Is LaShonda really pregnant? Does David want her baby? And what really happened between David and his brother?

The play ends pointedly in an airport - remember Sonya's plane metaphor - and while David's character development is predictable, Mr. Kyle, to his credit, refuses to tie things up neatly. What happens to David? Well, the playwright asks, what do you think?

"The Safety Net" runs through Sunday at the Michael Weller Theater, 311 West 43rd Street, Manhattan;

(212) 397-2918.