3rd Annual New York International Fringe Festival
  **Awarded Overall Excellence-Drama/Comedy**


"Never Swim Alone"
by Daniel MacIvor
At Dixon Place

Reviewed by David Roberts for Theatre Reviews Limited


Two boys on a beach. On the same beach, a girl in a blue bathing suit with a yellow transistor. Years later the beach seems to have become a boxing ring and the girl has become the referee in a "boxing match" of epic psychological proportions and surprising consequences. In the "ring" the two boys, now men, facing each other in a thirteen round bout monitored by an invasive collective unconscious that won't declare anyone winner until present and past are reckoned with and the winner's/loser's future adjudicated.

This is the marvelous stuff of Daniel MacIvor's "Never Swim Alone" at the 1999 New York International Fringe Festival. Friends since boyhood, Frank (John Maria) and Bill (Derek Milman) "box" their way through rounds announced by the referee (Susan O'Connor) and the one who is judged to be the "winner" of each round gets to start on the next. These rounds have names like "Stature," "Uniform," Who Holds the Briefcase Best," Friendly Advice (Parts I and II), "Members Only," "Dad," "All In The Palm Of His Hand," "Power Lunch," "Business Ties," and "Rumors of Glory." As the match proceeds, the hurt heaped on one friend by the other intensifies and the audience becomes more and more aware that there is much going on beneath the surface and braces for some kind of surprise, some enormous payoff. That payoff comes near the play's end and is both disarming and challenging.

During the course of the rounds, Frank and Bill re-discover their high level of competitiveness and their need to "never be second again." They compete over height and penis size (thankfully, that contest results in a tie), friends, real estate, women, horses, and firearms. What is the "truth" becomes an issue as self-loathing deepens and the stakes seem to get higher and higher.

The referee's "beach litany" is repeated with the same care and reverence given any liturgical prayer and the final round of the fight implodes into a flashback that sets the audience on the edge of anticipated despair.

John Maria, Derek Milman, and Susan O'Connor are nothing short of brilliant in this well directed (Timothy P. Jones) diamond of a play. The ensemble's timing is flawless as years of hurt and pain and guilt spew forth from a powerful Pandora's Box of passion and grief. Though their characters are now adults, Mr. Maria and Mr. Milman are able to convey the childlike innocence that resulted in a tragedy on the beach so many years ago. Every expression belies the wilful contest which has both bound them together and threatened to tear them apart, memory by memory.

"Never Swim Alone" deserves a future beyond this successful two week run.

Reviewed on Sunday, August 22, 1999


"NEVER SWIM ALONE"

By Daniel MacIvor. Directed by Timothy P. Jones. Presented by Craig Garcia and Tim O'Brien at Dixon Place, 258 Bowery Street between Stanton and Houston. In August at the New York International Fringe Festival. Last performance was on Sunday, August 29, 1999. For information visit http://www.fringenyc.org

WITH: John Maria (Frank), Derek Milman (Bill) and Susan O'Connor (Referee).

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