The Time of My Life is a new play that has been done twice. It was done first at the Greenfinch Theatre and Dive last summer, then in the small theatre at the Southgate Church last month. It was the first play Owen Brown, the playwright, had written. He hasn’t done much theatre, and Michael Cox, who has, responded to Brown’s online request for help. Brown invited the local theatre reviewers in the St. Louis Theatre Circle to come see it and write about it. A couple of us did. Brown thanked Jim Lindhorst and me, told us his play was to have another production after he had revised the script, and invited us to come see it.

So I did.

It was produced  this time by a new company founded by playwright Brown, Bread and Wine Theatre Company, in a small theatre space provided by the Southgate Church. The subject of the play remained much the same but with a couple significant improvements. It is still about difficult times in the life of Chris, the young man who is the central character. Originally we followed Chris from the age of 8 in grade school to his mid-30s, married, with a son and a failing career. Now the same material is presented as Chris’s memories when, with his life falling apart around him, he revisits his past to try to understand what had gone wrong. This change helps to unify the play and makes it easier to follow with more clarity. 

The staging is leaner. The only set piece is a large grandfather’s clock upstage center, “the time of my life,” and a few chairs arranged as needed. Only four actors take all the parts. Nicholas Urbanowicz played Chris throughout, and Brian Stith was his young son. Travis Pfeifer played all the other men: Chris’s grandfather to whom he was very close, his lifelong friend Brandon, his father, a couple of his teachers, his employer, a minister, and others. Yulia Mashburn played all the girls and women: his mother, his sister, a teacher, a school principal, a girlfriend, his wife. The cast made clear distinctions among their characters, and they spoke the lines well. Brown does have something of a gift for writing believable dramatic dialogue, and the cast used his ability well with their own.

In the play, many of Chris’s troubles arise from his addiction to video games. As with any addiction, he uses the games as an escape from his troubles, which he then is not dealing with. He’s ignoring his wife, his son, his work, hiding behind the games. But for Chris, though he started playing them as a boy with his friend Brandon, his is now a lonely addiction. He finally must deal with the people he is hurting, but that only happens near the end. The play could use some of those dramatic confrontations earlier along the way. I’m sorry we don’t have them.

The Bread and Wine website originally listed as crew only Hannah Baartman as Director and Owen Brown as Producer/Writer/Co-Stage Manager, and I didn’t see a program, but I’m pretty sure I saw others doing the work of crews. Anyway, they all put together a good production so a beginning playwright could get a fair treatment of his work and help us to see the promise he has. 

—Bob Wilcox

Photo by John Urbanowicz