Vacuum

Toward the end of Arlene Hutton’s Vacuum, a character laments, “I get bored. So bored.” Unfortunately, you may share that ennui over the course of this strained morality tale. At the play’s center is Grayson, a financially strapped young research scientist who just may have discovered a cure for cancer. He meets a modern-day Mephistopheles in Jonathan, a rapacious corporate industrialist who has invited the idealistic Grayson and his brain-damaged wife to a remote Arizona resort under the pretense of a conference. Jonathan's true intention is to acquire Grayson’s tumor-shrinking process so he can manufacture a skin treatment that would promise big money for both men—at the expense of the discovery's greater application. The talented Hutton, who in the past has crafted witty dialogue and layered characters, focuses her attention on a contrived and expository plot inhabited by caricatures that range from bitter to smarmy. Several miscast performers and Chris Goutman’s limp direction further suck the potential out of Vacuum, which could still achieve a breakthrough, given more time in the lab. (Visit our Fringe Festival page for more reviews, and fringenyc.org for more information.)—Robin Rothstein