NIGHT VISION

Gay restaurateur/sleuth Jane Lawless wrangles with obsessed fans.

Aging but still gorgeous movie star Joanna Kasimir has emerged from her self-imposed Iowa exile to join Cordelia Thorpe’s Minneapolis production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? But maybe she should have stayed hidden in the boondocks. Neighbors in the apartment she sublets bombard her with career, romance and makeup advice. They perch outside her door waiting for a glimpse of her. They lie about their journalism credentials to interview her. Worse yet, Gordon, the former gardener/boy-toy who spent eight years in prison for stalking her, is out and obsessing about her again. Jane, a close friend of Joanna’s brother David, hooks her up with a p.i. for protection, but the obsessed will not be denied. Gordon seems like the most menacing, but now David is erupting for obscure reasons in nightly bouts of violence. Even Joanna’s first husband, now anxious to remarry, may have smarmy motives. Will no one leave poor Joanna in peace? Must she take matters into her own hands to free herself from obsessive threats? Jane’s willing to suffer beatings and gunplay before she calls in the cops, but even she can’t make everything turn out right this time.

Jane’s got a new girlfriend, and Cordelia’s been snookered by her sister Octavia once again. Otherwise, their 14th tour of duty (An Intimate Ghost, 2004, etc.) finds them little matured in their middle years.