Edition: U.S. / Global

THEATER; Tinkering With Reality By Telling Two Stories

Published: March 25, 2001

NOTHING about ''Bluff'' is as provocative as its title. A word of dazzling contradictions, it signifies lies and truth. As an adjective, it means frank. As a verb or as a noun, it denotes fake. And we're not talking of calling someone's bluff. Or about other contexts: ships, poker, cliffs. Jeffrey Sweet's play at 12 Miles West means to be multileveled in the manner of its name. Mixing the real and the unreal, Mr. Sweet is not putting a new spin on conventional theater devices.

The playwright is playing with two types of stage reality -- telling a story and telling the audience about that story. True to the word bluff, he is playing a game of true and false.

When a character steps out of character, or an actor tells the audience how she feels about being double-cast (she hates it), it is hard to discern when Mr. Sweet is trying to be experimental and when he's just being coy.

The protagonists inform us all about the scene to come, or that they wouldn't be doing it if only something were different. Please!

Such overindulgence diminishes the moments of effective time-overlapping, as when the alcoholic Georgia, mother but more like problem-child to Emily and, ostensibly, long-suffering wife to the philandering Gene, pops into a scene where she doesn't belong -- just to reveal her side.

Interweaving past and present dialogue sometimes works. Correcting memories (Emily's habit) can be useful. Telling us that ''it's October now,'' as Emily's lover Neal does, is an example of the many self-conscious tricks. Incessantly talking at the audience, as is Gene's wont, irritates, but it serves a purpose.

At last, one comes to understand why Gene is Gene and, by extension, why Georgia is Georgia.

There is considerable plot, motivation and psychological heft crammed into 90 minutes. It may be to Mr. Sweet's credit that he gets it all in, under the finishing line, considering his diversionary conceits. It is not to his credit that it comes out more as a by-the-numbers exercise than a play.

Under Derek Todd's deft direction, six actors in eight roles leave no doubt that they believe in what they are being asked to do.

If the playwright were starting out, one might toss a lot of dos and don'ts around. But Mr. Sweet is a pro, having edited theater volumes, written several plays, even a new book about how to write a play. Title: ''Solving Your Script.''

So how do you solve a problem like a theater maven's play? Except to say that here, the title's the thing.


12 Miles West Theater Company, 488 Bloomfield Avenue, Montclair.

Through Saturday. Today at 3 p.m. and Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m.

(973) 746-7181.