The changing dynamics of friendship are explored in the touching and intriguing "Games We Play" through Feb. 26 at Touchstone Theatre in Bethlehem.
In the heartwarming and heartbreaking original play, written and performed by Touchstone ensemble members Emma Ackerman and Chris Egging, two characters examine their friendship from the unfettered joy of childhood at age 8 to the burden of responsibility in careworn middle age. A buoyant Ackerman is the energetic Chrissy who identifies herself as "of the air" and is hoping to fly away from home.
The lanky Chris Egging is the gawky and goofy Alexander who moves in next door to Chrissy. Alex is "of the earth" preferring to stay grounded and put down roots.
Both actors are very expressive in their interactions which are sweet and silly as well as frustrating. Egging has an almost rubber-like face as his emotions play across his continence.
Portraying two people with very different personalities who become friends despite those differences, Ackerman and Egging take the audience on a journey back and forth between the present and their characters during ages 8 to 18. The two actors also look at how people remember often things differently depending on their perspective.
Ackerman and Egging embody their child selves with exuberant energy, doing somersaults, waging sword fights and scrambling up into a tree house.
Since they are growing up in the 1990s, there is lots of nostalgia from that era from passing notes in class, to making mix tapes. The friends first call each other on the phone and then graduate to instant messenger on the computer which the audience can watch thanks to a video screen on stage.
As the characters age, their world of magic and make believe slowly begins to fade as dating and fitting in with the cool kids pushes its way to the forefront.
When Chrissy flees to college in Arizona, the friends lose touch and meet again when Chrissy comes home to visit her parents as Alexander grapples with putting his declining mother into a home.
Ackerman and Egging perfectly capture the awkwardness as the two friends try to reconnect.
The play incorporates the arts through music written and performed by Ackerman and Egging throughout the show as well as movement.
A lovely ballet choreographed by Ashley Tait Weller incorporates Ackerman and Egging skipping stones and balancing on rocks in the river.
Also creative and magical is Touchstones use of lasers and lighting to deliniate the friends escape into their world of make-believe.
The cast also has transformed Touchstones stage with a treehouse and huge tree through which Ackerman enters.
The actors also keep up an impressively rapid pace as they constantly switch outfits to represent the different ages.
Performances are 8 p.m. Feb. 17-18, 23-25 and 2 p.m. Feb. 19 and 26.
There will be talk backs with Ackerman and Egging after the performances on Feb, 17 and 24.
The show runs 85 minutes and has no intermission.
Tickets are $25, with $15 tickets for students/seniors and there is an option to pay-what-you-will at the door on Thursdays.
For information, go to touchstone.org, or call 610-867-1689.