THEATER REVIEW
“When Things Are Lost”
Grade: B
Through Aug. 27 (in rotating repertory with "Dispossessed"). 8 p.m. Aug. 9, 13, 18-19, 22, 25 and 27; 2 p.m. Aug. 14; 7 p.m. Aug. 21. $10-$25. West End Performing Arts Center, 945 Ralph David Abernathy Blvd., Atlanta. www.essentialtheatre.com.
Bottom line: A fine production of an even finer play.
“When Things Are Lost,” an audaciously original and challenging comedy-drama by Atlanta writer Derek Dixon, traverses between dreams and reality to chart the soul-searching journey of Andrew, a young man who’s desperately looking for his “missing” best friend, only to possibly find himself in the process.
Ambitious intentions and all, the play is not without its flaws, but it lends definite credence to the notion that it's infinitely better to at least try something different — and maybe fail (or rather falter) — than simply take a safe or easy approach, with more conventional storytelling methods or less inventive theatrical techniques.
Kudos to Dixon, then, for the courage of his convictions in daring to think so big and outside the box. And, for that matter, to Essential Theatre artistic director Peter Hardy, too, for tackling such uncommonly elaborate material within the budgetary constraints of a group that’s accustomed to working on a much smaller scale, typically in modest and restrictive black-box studio spaces.
(It's one of two locally written premieres in Essential's annual New Play Festival, alternating performances with Karen Wurl's "Dispossessed" through Aug. 28 at the West End Performing Arts Center.)
Insofar as the show is ably directed by Amber Bradshaw and features a number of adroit actors, it’s with all due respect that you almost wish the play had been discovered, nurtured and presented by one of the city’s larger professional companies, with greater financial and creative resources to lavish on it. On opening night, a few sound and lighting miscues, and several sluggish scene changes, disrupted the hallucinatory flow of things.
Dixon’s first act unfolds in a parallel dimension worthy of “The Twilight Zone,” following Andrew across time and space as he searches for the vanished Michael — at a small-town bus stop or grocery store, in an airport security line or a French bistro or an Orwellian office, sitting around a fire with some homeless men or mixing it up at a high-school costume party.
It isn’t very surprising that Andrew is never sure exactly where he is. Or that, when others start calling him Mike or Mikey, he might wonder aloud, “Do you ever get the feeling you’re not in your own body?”
In the second act, Andrew revisits a lot of the same people and places from Michael’s past, in a slightly more realistic context, and with a somewhat clearer understanding of how the various pieces fit into the puzzle that is, or was, his friend. (The play’s singular false note is a protracted detour about a free-wheeling bus trip to Wyoming.)
As Andrew/Michael, the industrious Barrett Doyle, so good in last year's "4000 Miles" at Aurora, bravely maneuvers the many twists and turns — not the least of which involves donning 1920s flapper drag and performing a musical interlude from "Cabaret."
Standouts in the supporting ensemble include Anthony Goolsby (as an imaginary Latin lover, among other roles), Alex Towers (as a rowdy co-worker and as Michael’s kid brother) and Alex Van (most notably, as an enormous pink rabbit).
“Sometimes, you need to take a risk to get to the next step,” Andrew observes at one point. In that regard alone, Essential’s “When Things Are Lost” is an unqualified success.
About the Author
