^{(L to R) Stacy Fischer, Jonathan Fielding, Brenda Withers, and Robert Kropf
Photo: Joe Kenehan}

Harbor Stage Company founding member Brenda Withers opens her new play with two couples staring out the window at a rambunctious puppy. They are in the home of Pia (Withers) and Tim (Jonathan Fielding), who are not terribly pleased with the “gift” Pia’s friend Krysten (Stacy Fischer) and her boyfriend/not-boyfriend Beau (Robert Kropf) have brought them. The dog enthusiasts naturally assumed Pia and Tim would be thrilled to have a puppy because they’d been thinking about getting a dog. But this dog is a mutt. This dog is one that may or may not be part pitbull. This is not the sort of dog Pia and Tim imagined.

What begins as a play centered on discussions of dogs, dog people, and dog breeding, quickly expands into an exploration of the causes and solutions for societal problems stemming from on the one hand systemic poverty and one’s childhood environment or on the other hand, as Pia sees it, “bad choices.” As Pia and Tim avoid saying what they really mean, instead questioning what the dog is doing, why he’s doing it, and whether or not he will upset their suburban community, Krysten rhapsodizes about the wonderful life they’ll have with this dog and Beau bristles at all the phony niceties. When it gets down to it, though, whether nature or nurture cause problems with this dog, with these people, or with society at large, there comes a time for someone to actually step up and do something about it, and as it turns out, none of these archetypical characters is willing to step into that role, preferring instead to complain about the circumstances and what they think caused them.

It’s always a pleasure to see the four members of Harbor Stage together onstage. In the 13 years that the troupe has performed on this stage, these actors/directors/writers have continually upped the ante for summer theater on Cape Cod. Fischer, Withers, Fielding, and Kropf are perfectly suited to their roles and Withers’ writing style is always recognizable as she enjoys devils’ advocate characters speaking things that likely have crossed the minds of those in the audience, even if they’d never actually say them. The dynamics between the characters demonstrates a push-pull relationship, each actor playing off the other. Westminster is very much a Withers play. It is funny and insightful, and it escalates delightfully to an over-the-top crescendo clearly calling out the prejudices and blind-spots human beings have about one another and the difficulty we have putting our money where our mouths are.

Westminster is performed at the Harbor Stage, 15 Kendrick Ave., Wellfleet, Thursdays – Saturdays, 7 p.m. and Sundays, 5 p.m. through September 1. For tickets ($25) and information call 508.514.1763 or visit harborstage.org.