An enthusiastic audience at the Old Stone House enjoyed Thursday night’s reading of Michael Winks’ Baby Love. This Ionesco-esque one-act play is a thoroughly enjoyable and absurd take on contemporary parenting.

Winks describes the play as "an acerbic look at two self-absorbed parents who can’t be
bothered to tend to a cranky baby.  They trade him in for a "grownup" baby
who progresses in his development at such a speed, they hope to have
him off to college in a matter of months!"

Baby Love takes the audience on a wild ride and the trio of professional actors was more than up for the ridiculous fun.

Linda Larson, an experienced Broadway actor, was manic and humorous as a careerist turned stay at home  mom. 

Jim Stanek, who’s roles on Broadway include A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Indiscretions and Lestat, gave a funny and wacky performance as a new dad loathe to give up his obsession with televised baseball.

Steve Insolera, who played the title role of the veterinarian in the OBIE award winning musical Corfax, Don’t Ask was perfect as Malcolm, the infant-man these parents get in exchange for their real baby.

Michael Winks is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon’s MFA playwriting program. His plays have been produced in Providence, Pittsburgh and New York and he has received playwriting grants from the state of Pennsylvania and from the Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation.  His plays, written for Miguel Paz, "Leaving La Paz" and "Mow, Blow and Go" will be read by the Sacramento Theater Company in January 2009.

Here’s an excerpt from Baby Love by Michael Winks.

HUSBAND
He came from your womb.

   WIFE
You sound awfully sure.

  HUSBAND
What’s that supposed to mean?

   WIFE
At
the hospital, you were out of the room while I was pushing.

   HUSBAND
So?

  WIFE
So
he came out…then they cleaned him up, took him to the nursery. I never got a good look at him, not
that I really wanted to at that point.

Even
if I had, it could have been a hallucination.

   HUSBAND
So then I went down to the nursery and they brought him out?

   WIFE
And
what did you see?

  HUSBAND
Baby, baby.

WIFE
And
what happened between the time they took him to the nursery and you got to see
him?

HUSBAND
You’re not saying?…

WIFE
Yep. The old switcheroo!