Well worth the Ride

Adrianne Krstansky in 2.5 Minute Ride. Photo by Christopher Mckenzie.

Time is tight today, but I did want to post that if you've been on the fence about seeing the final performances of 2.5 Minute Ride at the New Rep, by all means go. The Globe review, by the erratic Sandy MacDonald, was quite bizarre, and utterly wrong-headed. Lisa Kron's meditation on the mystery of her parents draws most of its power from the collision of her hip, gay sensibility with the enigma of her father, who escaped the Holocaust via the famous Kindertransport; the script's two contrasting poles are, believe it or not, a visit to Auschwitz and a day at an amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio. Between these two extremes winds a second narrative thread, about the marriage of Kron's brother - and her own reaction to, and integration into, that tradition. Kron doesn't really achieve any synthesis of her opposed perspectives, but the piece is nevertheless touching and funny by turns, and even shocks with a calmly stated moral dilemma that I won't give away here. Adrianne Krstansky replaces the author, but at least judging from Kron's performance in Well at the Huntington, we're lucky for that; Krstansky is a far better actress than Kron, and is affectingly un-affected throughout. M. Bevin O'Gara, whom I'm beginning to realize may be one of the best directors in town, directed. Through October 24.