I had a chance to attend the weekend opening of KOLT’s first play of the season, “Where We’re Born” at the Ooley Theater. The play is written by Lucy Thurber, a (relatively) young playwright from New York City. I’ve never met, or even heard of, Lucy Thurber (I’m guessing she doesn’t know me, either). What I can tell you is she is a really, really strong writer. If she is like her play in person, she is intelligent, articulate, and something of a romantic. That said, the play (at least for me) was not about romance.
I can describe the production with three words: focus, rhythm, intensity. What I found interesting was that nobody, not for a second, dropped the ball. Every performer was totally in tune with their character. At all times.
Thurber did a great job of constructing the dialog and story line; the characters stood out immediately as unique and identifiable (and familiar). This play is not for the faint of heart on either side of the theater. It must have taken a tremendous amount of work to put this production in place. And pain. Lots of pain.
The script required the kind of in-the-moment emotional availability that separates the causal from the practiced. The whole crew — Kelley Ogden, John Young, David Chernyavsky, Brian Harrower, Jessicah Neufeld — was spot on. Judging from the results, I would say Lisa Thew’s directing was outstanding.
The script is complicated enough that I’m sure there are lots of things that can be surmised, or learned. What I took away from it is there is a kind of response to life that one might call “existential indulgence”. Which is to say, drifting without purpose. One of the characters (“Drew”) looks longingly into the horizon, past the confines of the town, past even the vast distances of the sky, and into space. He doesn’t seem to know what he wants, just that he wants something. They all want something, but what they get is distraction. I got the distinct impression they were emotionally stunted.
But they are supremely articulate in their emotional weakness. The character “Tony” utters one of the best lines in a play that I’ve heard recently — he is struggling to come to grips with his own inadequacies, so he tries to live through the success of his young cousin (“Lilly”). He uses her the same way he uses a bottle of Rum; he numbs himself. You are my success, he tells her. A great line, generally true as far as it goes; as long as it doesn’t go too far. But of course it does go too far.
I cannot say that I liked these characters. They seemed small and alone. Sometime I feel like them. But I don’t like them. That may be Thurber’s point. Well, sometimes life is a quiet stream on a warm sunny day with clear skies, and sometimes it’s a freight train going full on rushing past you six inches away. Aside from that, I don’t know very much. So go and see the play and see what you think.
Well that’s it for now. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.
