REVIEW: New Barely There World Premiere in Moline a Mixed Blessing
I wanted very much to enjoy “word play,” a world premiere from the incredibly prolific playwright, Alex Richardson, and his Barely There Theatre. Unfortunately, I really didn’t, I’m sorry.
Despite 11 years of revisions, from when Richardson first tackled his first of many plays, “word play” still feels unfinished, a random collection of pretty brief scenes, presented in an often confusing parade of non-linear format, jumping forward and backward across time, with no clear delineation of characters or chronology. Despite stellar performances from the quartet of actors here, it was hard for me to care about any of them, mainly because we don’t really get to know about them.
In “word play,” there are four unnamed characters, played by Shyan DeVoss, Keenen Wilson, Sera Calhoun, and Evan Gagliardo. “Zero directions. A world detached. Experience a raw, unscripted exploration of the moment love becomes a memory, where the only thing written is the dialogue, and the rest is a once-in-a-lifetime collision of souls,” according to Richardson’s synopsis.
Sera Calhoun in “word play.”
In his program note, about his first play in 2015, Richardson noted it centers on four young adults “stuck in that phase of life between where their parents have relinquished stewardship but before the realities of family, duty and obligation have set in.”
“They’re still figuring things out. They’re still unpolished. So, it fits, that not everything here is pristine, or the way you would necessarily expect it to be,” he wrote in the program. “Art’s a process. So is life.”
First-time director Emma Wahlmann (herself a 20-something) wrote in the program that there’s “something so captivating about the emotional spaghetti that these four characters live through and that we the audience have to sort out. Life is messy, and relationships are complicated, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t worth having in the first place.”
Alex Richardson’s premiere of “word play” at Black Box Theatre features (L-R) Evan Gagliardo, Keenen Wilson, Shyan DeVoss and Sera Calhoun.
Wahlmann wrote they have found many moments “of authentic human connection through the complexity that young adult life often presents. This play shows that you don’t have to have everything figured out and that the relationships that you may have, romantic or otherwise, will continue to surprise you.”
Over his career, Richardson has written a total of 32 plays (including “To Leer at Lear,” “All American Riot,” “Their Town,” “Your Better Self,” and “Enemy of the People”), five screenplays, and been part of over 150 theater productions.
Keenen Wilson, left, and Sera Calhoun in “word play.”
A passionate, articulate advocate for local, contemporary theater, he’s absolutely to be admired for his prodigious talent as a writer, stage manager, producer, director, light and sound designer, and here composer (talk about a jack of all trades!), consistently pushing the envelope and trying something new. “word play” is unique in the area, for creating not only a continuous, gentle soundscape that provides a hypnotic foundation for the action, but the bare set (just two white chairs, and white sheets as backdrop) is illuminated only by a forest of 23 hanging lights, that subtly shift color and brightness – mainly encompassing white, pink, green and occasional blue.
If “word play” is meant more to reflect the messiness, confusion and haphazardness of life in your 20s, it does succeed. We begin with seeing DeVoss and Wilson’s characters in an awkward reuniting. She loves him and is nervous and anxious, and he tells her he’s getting married, and like much throughout the play, the mood is melancholy and wistful. In the next scene, he’s breaking up with her after years together, and she thought things were going great.
Shyan DeVoss and Keenen Wilson in “word play.”
In the first scene with Gagliardo and Calhoun, she’s cynical, upset and bitter and he’s more idealistic and friendly. They eventually become roommates.
Each individual scene is dramatic, gripping and relatable, at times peppered with caustic humor. But the constant shifting of time frames was too hard for me to follow.
One scene where a cute, smiling DeVoss describes “an ocean of light” twinkling, with each light representing infinite possibility is achingly poetic, but it seems like more could have been done to reflect those stars in this light setup. In a dramatic scene toward the end with all four characters on stage, the tension of the dialogue is reflected in dimming and raising many lights, including the house lights.
Shyan DeVoss and Keenen Wilson in “word play.”
As an ardent fan of the musical “Merrily We Roll Along,” which unfurls its 20-year action directly backwards (from 1976 to 1957), I would have preferred “word play” take a similar approach, rather than back and forth. It does satisfyingly close in a “Merrily” way with the DeVoss and Wilson characters meeting cute (with infinite possibility) in the rain, as she holds his umbrella and he holds her bags.
“word play” will continue Thursday through Saturday, at 7:30 p.m., with an extra Saturday matinee, Feb. 28 at 2 p.m., at Black Box Theatre, 1623 5th Ave., Moline. The runtime is about 85 minutes with no intermission. Please note: Contains strong language. Since the company believes theater should be accessible to everyone, they use a “Pay What It’s Worth” model. Admission is free at the door, and you choose what to contribute at the end of the night based on your experience.
You can reserve your tickets HERE.
Evan Gagliardo in “word play.”
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