Two Minutes' Traffic: Or, Round House Theatre

Entering its final week of performances at Round House in Bethesda is Or, a new play by Liz Duffy Adams directed by Aaron Posner.  In many ways, I am the ideal audience member for this play. I have a history of liking Posner's work best when he's working with modern playwrights, and I adore any chance of seeing Holly Twyford take the lead, especially in a small ensemble.  While the Restoration wasn't precisely my period in school, I certainly know enough that Aphra Behn, the figure at the apex of the play's triangle of characters, was a familiar name to hang a play on.  The elements that make up Adams' play are ones that I greatly enjoy, from exploiting every opportunity for farce that such a small cast playing a large variety of roles can grant an audience, to a frank and relaxed treatment of gender and sex capable of reminding the audience of just the sort of freewheeling attitude that so much of Restoration theatre embraced.  While Or is an enjoyable evening, it is not a particularly remarkable one--the thrust of the plot is all in the lead up, and "Will Aphra get her shot?" is a question anyone with Google access can answer before the play begins.  On the other hand, "What would Aphra do next?" is actually the question I would be more interesting in exploring, considering where Adams leaves her characters.