Omnivoires by Ben Clawson

A telephone repairman went up the side of a mountain only to find himself involved in a drama he never expected. What may look like the hallway of a high school will lead you to unexpected drama when you sit down in the darkness of Playwright’s Theatre in Madison, New Jersey. Before the repairman arrives on the scene, a Broadway-like stage set presents itself, and the drama that follows is worthy of the same appraisal.

Omnivores, written by Ben Clawson, is expertly acted and directed. The dialog is taut and efficient, and so is the action it advances.

The feeling if not the particulars of the ongoing argument between brothers, played by Brian Parks and Joey Palestina, is familiar to anyone who is part of a family. Everyone has a crazy uncle, perhaps not as extreme as the one played by Thom Molyneaux but you get the idea. And the transgression at the heart of the play is believable, as is the perpetrator, played by Scott Cagney; in fact, it’s drawn from a newspaper story you probably read.

The dialog has Mamet-like stretches. The time shuffle, which represents the same story to the audience more than once beginning at different moments in the plot a la Pulp Fiction, is inventive. The ending offers you a choice. Take it.