Last night, we went to see At the Wedding, the play by Bryna Turner, at the Studio Theatre until April 28. I knew little about it, had read no reviews, and only knew that it took place at a wedding (duh!), and that one of the guests was the bride’s ex. Oh, yes, and it was a comedy and only 75 minutes long.

Hannah works at Studio and she was able to get us comps, so we didn’t have to actually buy tickets. Because of this, the easiest thing for me to say is that it was worth every penny we spent. But I am not going to say that because it would have been worth the full price of our tickets. Rare, indeed, for a 75 minute play; normally, whether or not you like the play, you do feel a little cheated. But not tonight. It was absolutely the right length.

The play is very funny. The script is extremely clever. The direction, by Tom Story, is right on. And each actor played their part with precision. In fact, “precision” is a good word to use here. It was like the play was both very natural (I think thanks to Dina Thomas, who plays Carlo) and completely, movement by movement, choreographed. All for comedy.

The gist of the play is the Carlo is the ex (not sure what that means here; I don’t think she was married) of the bride, who is now changing her life style and marrying a man (the groom himself never appears in the play). Carlo, who is now alone, subconsciously (or perhaps consciously) tries to torpedo the wedding by, first, not sending an RSVP, second, trying to make a “boring” party more dramatic, and third, telling the bride she should forget the wedding and run away with her. Meanwhile, you have a rather ditzy blond friend who has a love/hate relationship with Carlo, an ill at ease English teacher named Eli, a bisexual woman who thinks she is in a six year “open” relationship with the Eli (does he?) , of course Eva the bride, and the bride’s mother (who of course knows Carlo well and perhaps misses her), played by the wonderful Holly Twiford (who really knows how to get drunk on stage). And the lone bartender/server, a comic character who only speaks in one scene but is there throughout.

And the music. Of course, with the exception of YMCA, I hardly knew any of the playlist than ran through the show, but the selection was perfect. It was continual, each song complemented the one before, and each song was just right for each scene. And the music plays both in the background and, for short sequences when the cast burst into the well choreographed dances, in the foreground.

And then it turns out that the entire show was a take on Samuel Coleridge’s The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner, where the ancient mariner (here, Carlo) shoots the black albatross that is guiding the ship to safety (here Eva) , resulting in the death of the entire crew (nobody here is calm and collected), other than the mariner himself. But he, because of his action, has to carry the albatross across his back and feel his responsibility every day all day. And there was Carlo, happy with Eva but clearly afraid of her happiness, who leaves Eva and has been carrying Eva on her back ever since.

It’s not like there is a real plot. More like vignettes at the wedding, all involving Carlo. My question was: how could Bryna Turner have written this clever dialogue, with no plot but with people, and thoughts, weaving in and out. I think the script is masterful.

And then, how did Samuel Taylor Coleridge come to play his part? Did she start with The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner and say – I want to riff off that poem? Or did she write a first draft with no mention of the Ancient Mariner and it just happened that someone who read the draft said “Hey, Bryna, this is just like Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner? Hard to know.

Oh, and did the audience like it? On their feet as soon as the cleverly choreographed curtain call began.

So for those of you who have seen a couple of recent reviews where I have been less than complimentary to things that most people rave about, I offer my opinion of At the Wedding as evidence that there are some things I really do like.