The Zero Hour

Madeleine George's new play for 13P has as much heart as brains, which is saying a lot—even if punchy lines sometimes undermine the emotional truth. Rebecca (Angela Goethals) and O (Hannah Cabell) are lovers sharing a tiny Queens apartment; the closeted Rebecca is writing a book on the Holocaust, and the more she delves into questions of responsibility and authenticity, the looser her grip on reality becomes. Amazingly, all this does not add up to sappy melodrama, but to comedy, and the staging (by director Adam Greenfield and set designer Mimi Lien) is visually rich. —Pamela Newton