Stage Review - A Lonely Realization (The Shattered Glass Project)
Stage Review - A Lonely Realization
Presented By: The Shattered Glass Project - Seattle, WA
Show Run: October 18 - October 27, 2024
Date Reviewed: Thursday, October 24, 2024
Reviewed By: Greg Heilman
On any given night, somewhere off the beaten path, in Seattle, there is an overlooked piece of theatre happening, usually by a small group, with actors who do it for nothing more than the love of their craft, or because they feel it is an important medium for presenting a thought, or idea, that people need to learn about. This is all in addition to the mainstream theatre happening at the larger Equity or otherwise professional venues across town. One example of this can be found down a long, industrial looking hallway on the 4th floor of the Seattle Armory, in Theatre Puget Sound’s Theatre4, a black box space that is currently home to A Lonely Realization, a new play from local writers Darby Sherwood and Emily Stone, and being produced and presented by The Shattered Glass Project. The play, on stage through Sunday, October 27, is directed by Rebecca O’Neill and features the two playwrights, along with actor Lexi Warden, in a piece that explores the effects of the many flavors of male power, including grooming, sexual abuse and assault, and the impact it has not only on the person who has experienced the trauma of the these actions, but on those around the victims. It also presents a look at how the community reacts to these things and shines a dark light on our collective apathy and ignorance of the events that lead up to and follow an act of sexual abuse.
The show itself feels rough, Kyleigh Archer’s overall scenic design is not polished at all, there are pieces of furniture on stage, a desk, a table, and various other items that roll in and out, there are things hanging from the ceiling, a closet that is simply a space with a curtain over it, and a rack where the actors hang their costumes when they’re not using them and from which the grab them for a particular scene. Props look like they came from the local Goodwill, and Lara Kratz’s costumes are generally simple. All that said, I like it. A rough topic deserves a rough set, and this one fits the bill, plus there’s nothing superfluous here, everything on the set is used to further the story. And while my first impression of the set may have been a little off putting, just as I didn’t know where the story was really going when it first started, as the play went on, I began to appreciate both more.
Sexual abuse and assault are not easy topics, and while Darby and Emily have attempted to inject some humor into the story, it sort of gets lost in the heaviness of it all. And while the act itself is not depicted on stage, it most certainly is the thread that’s woven through the entirety of the drama at hand. When the show begins, the audience sees a girl, in a creatively lit bedroom clearly sad and sloughing off her clothes, ostensibly following the event that is so much a part of the play. No context is given at the time, and the action moves over to the primary story arc, which is a pair of actors, played by Darby and Emily as a Mushroom and Frog respectively, under the direction of Tree, played by Lexi. They’re working through a play written by Legs, which on stage is a torso-less pair of jeans with a face. You may ask yourself, as I did when the play first began, “Exactly what the heck am I watching?”. Well, it’s all metaphorical, and it all makes sense the further on the play goes. That first scene alsopppp begins to make sense within the overall arc of the show, suffice it to say that all of the storylines intersect, each has a bearing on how every character that each actor plays (upwards of 4 or 5 per actor), and each presents a different perspective not just on how one person’s life, and the art that they create, is impacted by a heinous act like the one that has been perpetrated on to Legs, but also how the behavior of the community and larger society is affected, especially as it relates to interactions with the victim. There are so many points to ponder in the script, ones that ask “if something isn’t seen, did it ever really happen?”, or “I watched it happen, I was complicit”, or “We can’t make decisions that affect someone’s livelihood without knowing everything”, or even one of the actors saying “Someone should do something” without asking anything of themselves. The play also presents the damage that gossip can do, how we generally take an “out of sight out of mind” policy, and how we view victims in a he said/she said scenario, especially when the accused is someone with such a personality that makes it not fathomable that he could possibly do something this atrocious.
There are plenty of examples of plays that deal with this particular and heavy subject matter. I find it hard to believe that there are many that do it as creatively as A Lonely Realization does. The telling of this, with its interweaving storylines, uses woodland characters, a frog, a mushroom, and a tree, a housewife and her husband in what feels like an over-exaggerated sitcom in which the couple somehow has ended up with a rotting corpse on their dinner table (this is the out of sight, out of mind piece), and a scene which involves Vladimir Lenin and his wife, juxtaposed with the hearing between Legs and the accused, the latter a creative piece of writing, helped by lighting (Cami Taliaferro-Barber), projections, and sound (Alison Kozar), all coming together to provide an extra emotional punch. This is a tough piece to watch at times, which comes down not just to the writing and the acting, but how the play is presented. I did have a tough time getting the point of the family with the rotting corpse, though. Eventually, that part of the story made its point, that men are willing to sacrifice anything to gain or retain power, it feels like a precursor to the rest of the play which talks about the behavior of men in power positions. To me, it just took a long time to get there, and in a play that advertises a run length of 100 minutes, but comes in closer to 120, I’m not sure this piece adds enough to the story to make it worthwhile. I also feel that the scenes featuring Legs dealing directly with what has been put upon her lack realizing their true potential in the way that they are delivered. I’d love to see them done more dramatically, they’d land their gut punches far more solidly. That said, I still think those scenes, maybe with the exception of Emily’s monologue toward the end of the play, are the most impactful, they’re at the core of the point that A Lonely Realization is trying to make. I simply think they could go from good to outstanding with a little more emphasis on the delivery.
Enjoy might be not be the best word for how I feel about A Lonely Realization. If you come away from this show thinking it was something thoroughly enjoyable, you’ve probably missed the point. But, I appreciate it, I like the unique way in which the story is constructed, it’s use of a metaphorical world and situations to highlight the impact sexual trauma can have on its victims and those who are in the victim’s orbit. Creatively, there’s a lot to like here, from Cami’s lighting to Alison’s sound, and Lara’s costumes. The overall design of the piece is most definitely unique and provides a raw backdrop for a story that, at the end of the day, is itself very raw. From the perspective of acting, I will say that it’s clear how this small group feels about the importance of the subject matter. Lexi Warden as the clock is especially good, especially in her delivery of the prose that highlights some of the major points the play is trying to make, but much of the emotional heavy lifting comes from Emily. Emily’s ability to dissect a character and get to its soul is clear, and even as a puppeteer reenacting a most unforgettable scene is exemplary.
A Lonely Realization aims to tackle the very difficult, but important and unfortunately timely, topic of sexual abuse and male exploitation of power in a most unique way. The new play from writers Darby Sherwood and Emily Stone presents a largely metaphorical world that seems at first to veer off in different directions, but eventually comes together in a most heart wrenching and thought provoking way. It feels at home in the TPS Theatre4 space, its rough and raw design a seemingly apropos way to tackle such a subject in this way. The humor of the show takes a bit of the edge off of the subject at hand, but not enough to lessen its impact and while I don’t believe that the version on stage currently meets the play’s true potential, or should stand as a finished product, this group is well on their way to getting there.
A Lonely Realization, presented by The Shattered Glass Project, runs on the TPS Theatre4 stage at the Seattle Armory through October 27. For more information, including ticket availability and sales, visit https://www.shatteredglassproject.org/.
Photo credit: Kirk Hostetter Photography
