Through 7/5 @ Dorset Theatre Festival

“The play didn’t engage me deeply, but I enjoyed the likeable company and the impressive stagecraft; I recommend their work wholeheartedly.”

Salvage by Lena Kaminsky is an amiable workplace comedy about three people of a certain age in transition and how they bump up against each other and receive solace from one another. Taking place at the quintessential summer playhouse, Dorset Theatre Festival, the play is set at the town dump, which is presented on stage with a magnificent set by Christopher & Justin Swader.

All three characters are at a crossroads of sorts. Carla (played by Eva Kaminsky, the playwright’s sister) is the outsider stopping by the dump to get rid of all the mirrors in her childhood home. She has moved back home after being fired from her job and her mother’s move to Florida. For being the central catalyst of the play, we don’t learn a great deal about her.

Kenny (a terrific Robbie Sublett) is sorting the plastic bottles from the cans and designates Carla’s mirrors as Treasures and places them on display where they quickly sell. He is caught on the phone in a heated exchange with his ex, Heather. Sublett moves through the set like a dominant force. He has a very moving scene in the dump’s office when he finds out about Carla communicating with Heather. He is vulnerable, hurt, and at a loss for words. I loved his work throughout the show but this scene was exceptional.

Finally, there is the boss Carla, (fun Marcia DeBonis) who is recovering from the loss of her wife. She has a nice, comfortable ease onstage which is appropriate to her job in the play.

The set is a stunning, beautiful collection of junk. There is a lean-to stage right that shelters the items for sale and the bins separating plastics from cans. Stage left is the office sliced open to reveal its desk, fridge, and chairs. It’s a beautiful evocation of the sorting place described in the script, but I did not find the setting convincing as far as what happens in this dump and what its day to day business entailed. People walk in, pay to drop off, pick up mirrors without paying, items are sorted by stabbing your hands into contractor bags and fishing around by feeling…

M. Bevin O’Gara directed the great acting trio who gave so much to this script, which has good scenes but also numerous phone calls and online communications. At one point, Kenny feels the pain of being treated like “a piece of garbage” and I was made to think that these characters were being sorted from worthy to discarded. The play didn’t engage me deeply, but I enjoyed the likeable company and the impressive stagecraft; I recommend them wholeheartedly. Carla has taken up selling essential oils which is poked fun at but leaves us with a deep inhale at play’s end.

Salvage at Dorset Theatre Festival (104 Cheney Rd, Dorset, VT 05251) through July 5. Tickets: www.dorsettheatrefestival.org