Review: Invisible Theatre's 'Coming Apart' misses mark

Neubeck plays Bert in Invisible Theatre’s “Coming Apart,” a comedy about a couple whose relationship may, or may not, be falling apart.

Neubeck’s part is a smaller one, and his first scene makes it clear he’s a lush. His great restraint in portraying a man who can barely stand up makes it very funny.

That’s one of the few laughs in this comedy.

“Coming Apart” opens with Frances and Colin, happily married for 21 years, simultaneously saying “I want a divorce.”

Oh, but do they?

The comedy sets out to show us moments in their lives together, with flashbacks to their meeting, proposal, wedding. Of course, their memories don’t match. To complicate matters, the two writers — Colin is a humor columnist, Frances a romance novelist — have an unhealthy competition going on.

Throw into this mix a pushy agent, Sylvia, who represents both of them, and Colin’s best friend, Bert, who has a deeply intimate relationship with scotch and unhappiness.

There’s something astonishingly grating about this Fred Carmichael play.

It’s not the acting. Susan Kovitz and David Alexander Johnston as the will-they-or-won’t-they-split couple treat the material much better than it deserves. Kovitz, especially, can throw a withering look, or a skeptical one, or an unhappy one, with great conviction, making her a hoot to watch. And Susan Claassen’s Sylvia was just what one might expect of a literary agent with an eye on the bottom line and a mostly hidden romantic side.

The cast stays committed to the material and the characters. The question is, does this play deserve that commitment?

Nearly every comma, joke, expression, and, especially, the ending, is predictable. There’s never a question of what the play’s destination is. It’s just that the journey getting there isn’t that much fun or compelling.

There are a few moments that are guffawable, but most of them are just slightly amusing.

Fred Rodriguez, James Blair and Katherine Byrnes shared directing responsibilities, and they saw to it that the play moved quickly and with clarity — not so easy when something is so full of flashbacks.

It is always a wonder that IT can transform its small stage with such convincing style. The set, an upscale New York City apartment that smoothly transforms into a literary agent’s office with just a turn of a table and the opening of pocket doors, did not disappoint. Blair and Claassen get the credit for that.

Too bad the script did not live up to the other elements of the play.