REVIEWS

Worry Days

Filled with surprising and thoughtful twists and turns, Worry Days is one of the better written and acted shows I've seen in this year's Fringe Festival. Unfortunately, it is also the most poorly attended. An older white woman (Carol Clarke) is on the train with a young black man (Shawn Shepard, who also wrote and directed). She sees he has been shot, and it quickly becomes apparent he will die since he is refusing medical attention. Soon after, we will learn that her husband also died of a gunshot wound, as a part of a robbery that she witnessed and that now, four years later, she is unprepared to face her own impending death from cancer. But this is the easy stuff. The play's greater punch unfolds as we must consider how we care about other people, and the underlying reasons why. It's an urban fable of sorts, cynical in undertone, and just the kind of work by young Avariciousness playwrights we keep saying need more of but somehow don't support when it is around. As I write this, there are three remaining performances of Worry Days . Take a deep breath and go be impressed. At St. Marks Theater. 45 minutes. [Gutman]