The Gil Cates Theater at the Geffen Playhouse currently serves as Bianca’s Restaurant, a cozy setting where the audience doesn’t just watch a play but participates in the wreckage and rekindling of a once-burning romance.

In TABLE 17, playwright Douglas Lyons and director Zhailon Levingston serve up a slow-simmering pas de deux between ex-fiancés who know better, but come anyway. Under the warm, honeyed light of Bianca’s, the West Coast premiere unfolds like a tasting menu of flirtation, heartache, and undeniable chemistry.

“Romantic, sharp, and irresistibly messy, Table 17 isn’t just theater—it’s emotional eavesdropping at its finest.”

Gail Bean’s Jada arrives already unraveling, having cycled through at least three wardrobe changes before taking her seat. She’s charismatic, wounded, and just unsteady enough to make us root for her. Across from her sits Biko Eisen-Martin’s Dallas, a brooding ex with the kind of quiet that says far too much. Their dynamic is mature, messy, and magnetic—a fire being rekindled in real time. Adding sparkle and sass is Michael Rishawn, who plays host, waiter, and puckish chorus. From the top of his sequined pink platform heels, he watches (and gently meddles), delivering lines like, “I can pull no strings ‘cause I’m no Geppetto!” with the perfect blend of bite and buoyancy. A defining feature of the show’s structure is audience engagement. As Jada and Dallas launch into their opening monologues, they break the fourth wall to enlist the crowd’s input—prompting playful, shouted responses that instantly blur the line between observer and participant.

Everything in the space—from Nikiya Mathis’s hair design to Devario D. Simmons’s costuming—conspires to elevate the tension. Lyons’s dialogue is sharp and emotionally intelligent, while Levingston’s direction gives it space to breathe: pauses ache, glances linger, and silences crackle with unfinished business.

And then there’s the titular table—Table 17—intimate, exposed, inescapable. It becomes the third character: witness, confessional, and battleground. The emotional topography of the night unfolds right on its surface. By the final scene, TABLE 17 isn’t just a love story; it’s a mirror held to every almost-reconciled relationship, every “what if” still quietly burning. This is theater that invites you to remember who you once sat across from, and wonder what would happen if they invited you back.

— Rosane Grimberg

“Table 17″ runs through December 7th at the Geffen Playhouse. More information at https://www.geffenplayhouse.org/