‘Cross Purposes’ & ‘The Expert’ – One Acts by Frank Cossa

By Alix Cohen

Two slight plays- the first more than the second- show Frank Cossa has an ear for naturalistic dialogue.

The first features Tom (Riyadh Rollins) waiting impatiently at a café for Tiffany (Camilla Valentina). They had sex the night before. She arrives hopeful and exhilarated, anticipating the beginning of a romantic relationship – only to be told the encounter was a mistake.

Tom is a priest…which doesn’t faze her, but horrifies him. Tiffany wonders why he doesn’t quit, but barring that is ready to go on. She’s a contemporary young woman who clearly wants but doesn’t need.The scene is observed and might be misinterpreted by waitress Millie Burns (Amanda Cannon) who steps up in the name of abused womanhood.

Valentina is excellent. She prattles on with girlish anticipation making likely assumptions. Rollins appears aptly embroiled. The actor’s timing is excellent.Cannon is heavy handed.

In the second play, Jack Clayburn (Riyadh Rollins) anxiously awaits an art appraiser who will tell him whether a family heirloom that might be by Velasquez is real or fake- radically changing life as he knows it. He and wife Helen (Amanda Cannon) are late for a social engagement.

Diego Lucar (Christian Miranda) arrives- in leather, by motorcycle, putting his ostensible client off. Still, Jack assumes he’s the appraiser and natters nervously about family, hopes, drinks, pretty much anything to fill the odd (too long) silence. When Diego goes to the restroom, Helen expresses suspicions and doubts. How do they know who he REALLY is?!

Diego goes to the “wrong” facility and accidentally sees photos of an exposed Helen. He erotically describes how he knows it’s her (no faces) while circling like a spider. Helen stills. Jack telephones The Metropolitan Museum to check on his visitor’s credentials. Diego and Helen retreat to the (out of sight) bedroom where the painting hangs.

The rest of the play focuses on what has or hasn’t happened behind the closed door; whether Diego and Helen know one another, whether and why she’s torturing Jack with jealousy. Leaving audience as in the dark as Jack would work better that employing an obvious tagline.

Here, oddly, Rollins is way over the top, eschewing the inhabited performance of the preceding piece, while Cannon comes into her own with an intriguing character.

As Diego, Christian Miranda is spot on. Explanation of the painting’s origin, how he judges, and what they might own emerges believable. Sexual innuendo sizzles.

It’s baffling that the same director elicited two such opposite performances out of two of the actors.

Cross Purposes & The Expert – One Acts by Frank Cossa
Directed by Ken Coughlin
Beckmann Theatre- American Theatre of Actors
314 West 44th Street https://americantheatreofactors.org/