There Are No More Big Secrets *

Heidi Schreck's new play at the Rattlestick starts with a drunken reunion of two couples who haven't seen each other in 15 years. The hosts, a pair of schoolteachers (a fine Gibson Frazier and a compulsively watchable Christina Kirk), welcome into their home an old friend (an overemoting Adam Rothenberg) and his Russian wife (Dagmara Dominczyk, who shines in the play's showiest role) who may be fleeing Russia because her investigative journalism angered the wrong people. Her husband was a childhood friend of both the hosts and had an affair with the wife. Their relationships are further complicated by a half-hearted dose of the supernatural that, for me at least, undermined the play. Nadia Alexander appears in the second act as a troubled teenager. John McDermott's set of an old country house well serves the play. I'm not sure whether Kip Fagan's direction was lacking or whether the writing just slacked off. With some misgivings, I stayed for the second act and regretted it. Unfortunately the liveliest character does not return and the promise of the play's early moments are largely dissipated. It's one of those frustrating plays that's just good enough that you wish it were better.