'Rounding Third' about much more than baseball

Matt Bridges as Don and Blake White as Michael are the two central figures in "Rounding Third," in place through Sunday at South Carolina Repertory Company. In fact, they are the only figures in "Rounding Third," a comedy/drama written by Richard Dresser and directed by Tom Evans.

Dresser wrote the piece, which premiered in Chicago in 2002, to address issues faced in Little League Baseball -- issues of building character, encouraging fair play, sportsmanship, having fun, team spirit, team play and the conflicting philosophy of winning at all costs, and no matter what.

Clearly, Dresser meant to entertain and to challenge our thinking, too. Happily, his issues were given thorough exploration by everyone involved at Saturday night's performance. Home run hitters were not only the two fine actors and the director, but the spare, minimal stage, the sound and lighting details, and -- and this is important -- the audience.

Simply stated, "Rounding Third" is about Little League Baseball, but it is certainly about more than that.

At the very beginning, when Don, and we don't mean Donald, and Michael, and we don't mean Mike, hook up for their first meeting as Little League coach and assistant coach at a community watering hole, their differences are impossible to miss. The beer-drinking Don meets the Starbucks quaffing Michael, and in seconds, the disparate philosophies of both men become the more defining. As the story progresses, boundaries are crossed in rapid succession as Dresser sets up the two who hold different preoccupations, to try to take their team to the championship and, just as importantly, to resolve their coaching conflicts.

They move the play by turns from laugh-out-loud funny, to drop-dead serious, as we in the audience learn more about the backgrounds of the two men, and the personal and family histories they bring to the table. And, though chuckles and grins and a load of one-liners are the order of the evening, the play is not without poignancy and some touching, dramatic moments.

Even as Bridges and White take their last bows, we are given only a hint of assurance that complete resolution is a guaranteed outcome. Michael appears newly challenged, and Don, though sure of himself, seems incapable of change. But they have made us hopeful, after our careful examination of their issues, and the set of life's circumstances that seem to form their inner spaces, that in spite of everything, their association will continue and their tenuous friendship will remain in place.

White is spot-on as the sensitive father and tightly wound assistant coach. He is convincing as the cell-phone toting, frequently late and distracted businessman. A kind of idealist, he still is the victim of life's abuses, which, by the way, continue, quite comically, at the hands of Bridges. He completely surprised us when he unsympathetically responded to the blustery, housepainter and former athlete turned coach, calling him less than brilliant ... or words to that effect.

White carefully reminds us he still is in touch with his priorities, and even more importantly, his goals for being involved at all. He moves seamlessly past our first impression, as he reveals first, his concept of what Little League should be, the true nature of his work, the death of his wife and his concern for their son -- who is not only a member of the team, but anything but a talented and gifted athlete. Look forward to White's "prayer" that his son actually catches a ball.

Bridges, whose performance is full of energy, takes Don, the blustery coach, through an impressive transformation, too. He provides us the opportunity to understand what he has become. How convincing was his total recall of a baseball play he made as a 12-year-old, which was ruined by a teammate.Raging against a past he could not change, motivated by revenge, he offered clear insight into the impact of his career-ending sports injury, his relationship, real or imagined, with the mother of a Little League team member, and coming to grips with his wife's affair with his best friend. Even his trophy-winning son's decision to abandon the Little League team in favor of a starring role in the school's production of "Brigadoon" seemed the more immediate through his skillful handling of the role.

Tom Evans, who has directed 23 plays at SCRC, directed and saw to the scenic design of "Rounding Third." He also set, with impressive result, the actors against the minimal set with attention to position, placement and suggestion. It is all about the actors.