At Art House Productions, ‘Tracy Jones’ Finds Laughs in Loneliness

In William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, closing this weekend at Nimbus Arts Center, the heroine declares that names don’t mean much. A block west at Art House Productions (354 Marin Blvd.), a somewhat less famous playwright comes to a different conclusion. In Stephen Kaplan’s Tracy Jones, directed by Alex Tobey, names carry weight. A name is an anchor for identity, or an item to purloin, or something to salvage after a flood of grief. 

This bittersweet comedy, which opened on Thursday night and continues at the new black box theater in the Arts District until November 5 ($45; $35 for seniors and students), is quite funny. But as giddy as it can sometimes be, it confronts a serious topic — the growing problem of American loneliness. Tracy Jones dramatizes a meeting between three stranded modern subjects searching for self-definition and human connection. Their awkwardness is exacerbated by the place where the action unfolds: a generic (and gastronomically questionable) chicken wing joint picked by the protagonist for a “personal party” that’s doomed from the start.

The Jones Street Bar and Grill location engenders most of the physical gags in Tracy Jones, and it generates quite a bit of the cringe comedy, too. By the end of the play, all the characters will be slimed by one sauce or another.

Click Here for the full Jersey City Times review by Tris McCall