TEXT OFFENDER. His name is Ian, and he did a bad thing Michael Urie in the original November 2020 streaming of “Smithtown,” available again this month.
YOU’RE NOT GOING TO get to meet Melissa Cohen. Even if you saw the original streaming production of Drew Larimore’s drama “Smithtown” in November, you didn’t get to meet her. You only heard about her — a text she received, her cry for help, how other human beings reacted. Now the people at the Studios of Key West are bringing the play back, streaming it again from Feb. 13 through Feb. 28.
In addition to the unseen but highly sympathetic Melissa, the play has four characters.
Ian A. Bernstein (the always intriguing Michael Urie) is supposedly lecturing to his students in the new media department about “ethics in technology.” But he digresses, talking about himself in the third person. “He wanted more than just a master’s degree and death,” Ian says. “He wanted a life.” Well, Ian’s been depressed. His girlfriend broke up with him.
So one night he sends a text to Melissa and asks her to take some sexy photos of herself — with her shirt off — and send them to him. She does. And he promptly passes the pictures along to 11 people she doesn’t know.
Mmmm. Much better, for Ian. Now he doesn’t feel so rejected. He’s gotten what feels like confirmation of his masculinity or attractiveness — or whatever it is that men are aways needing confirmation of.
This is Bonnie (Ann Harada), a likable, coffee-addicted young woman who calls herself the Text Angel. That’s what she does. She sends people encouraging texts to cheer them up, to help them get through the day or night.
But when Melissa — who is understandably distraught about what Ian did — gets in touch, Bonnie gets two messages mixed up. Melissa is agonizing over how to deal with the pain and wondering if committing suicide could be the answer. But Bonnie accidentally sends her a message meant for another client — one who was getting ready to climb a mountain and needed a little pep talk. “Just do it!” was not what Melissa needed to hear.
This is Eugene (Colby Lewis), at the Smithtown Heritage Center, who fiercely believes that artists should not interfere with the world around them. Instead they should just record the events and call it art. Unfortunately — for everyone — his window is across the street from Melissa’s. Putting on his artist hat, he describes her suicide by hanging and photographs it frame by frame. Was it good for you, Eugene?
And this is Cindy (Constance Shulman), sitting in her kitchen with a tin of cookies, talking to her new neighbors (two more unseen characters) .Cindy really wants to connect with them. Maybe there’s “time for other things” now, she says, like “book clubs, dinner parties, a fish tank.”
She and her husband are separated. Melissa was her daughter.
“Smithtown” asks wrenching questions and answers them without flinching. You may have to close your eyes at times, but these are truths worth knowing.
“Smithtown,” by Drew Larimore, directed by Stephen Kitsakos. Studios of Key West. Available for streaming from Feb. 13 (8 p.m.) through Feb. 28 (midnight). Tickets: $20 ($15 for members). Running time: 1 hour 5 minutes.