And by modern, I certainly mean 21st Century America. Playwright Keith Bunin has fleshed out very distinctive and unique, yet very American, characters here and gives them text and subtext galore, but he doesn’t give us a lot of action…so Director Mark Clements and choreographer Jenn Rose give us transitions from one idea to the next, one scene to another, through the elegant choreography of moving train seats from one position to another. You will understand this if you experience it.
It seems a bit ironic to me that Keith Bunin has set this modern drama on a train…once an ubiquitous mode of American transportation…but now a luxury and something of an outlier. But he needs time to tell his story (stories). And we have six characters and six stories to tell. Yet few of the stories are actually told via conversation between the passengers. Most of them are thoughts spoken out loud so that the audience may hear but go unheard by the other passengers. And these aren’t necessarily inner dialogues nor asides…they are suppositions that the playwright is making about the ideas and thought processes of his characters…and the effects and repercussions that they have on each person’s life. And how those decisions could effect the others or their society, if they were actually shared with the others. With this form, Bunin is easily able to discuss a number of problems in modern society, modern politics, and the damage we may do to ourselves and others by not openly engaging with each other. That alone is a major focus on a very modern and I guess, recent failing in American society.
Jack Ball is T.J., who is running away from something (we know what it is in the play but I don’t want to provide TMI) and is clearly going through a lot of inner turmoil as a result. The other characters can see the physical effects. Yet he comes to the fore and helps others where he can. Ball does a marvelous job of the presenting the stressed out T.J. whenever he is allowed to disengage and be alone. He cleanly moves to caregiver mode when his thoughts can be put aside. The shift is so subtle at first but so significant, I can’t imagine how Ball moves from one to the other on stage.
All of the passengers have secrets, all are here with personal stressors, and all of them have stories to tell…and in most cases they come out in those out loud thought processes than Bunin so readily employs. Emily S. Chang gives us a very cool and seemingly collected Jane, an artist who works in animation and seems to have the world at her feet…not quite. Yadira Correa is a very angrily animated Anna who doesn’t quite care anymore about who knows what about her personal tragedy…some of her speaker phone rants provide some of the bigger laughs of the night! Noah is an Army veteran who has seen the ravages of war and is trying to keep his life together. Justin Huen channels the perfect level of anger, wisdom, and self-acceptance here…Heun seems to understand PTSD and how to portray it on stage. He also provides some of the most sincere although not always practical advice to T.J.. Liz is heading home after making funeral arrangements for her late brother and is at her own wit’s end…yet Kelley Faulkner, outwardly, keeps her in a cool, calm, collected zone. And she quickly adopts her mother mode when confronted with the very troubled T.J.. A bit of comic relief and a bit of generational conflict is introduced by the arrival of Ed, a drunken traveling salesman who too is at a nadir in his life, and Jonathan Wainwright gives us, at first, a out of f***’s to give character to a more mellow observer of modern life.
A big theme here is how we miss opportunities…and how we don’t recognize that others are often suffering too…because they seemingly aren’t looking the part. And things aren’t always what they seem and that a lot of comfort can be provided to others just by recognizing them.
BUT: there is a great deal of humor here as well…some of it a bit dark…but a great deal of fun nonetheless.
The set is simple, modern, and elegant as well. Six simple train seats on wheels, lighting in the floor to highlight the actors at the center of the action, and simple overhead lighting as well to emphasize mood and feeling! Props? Knapsacks and luggage…just like on the train.
Because of some interruptions in my own personal life, I attended The Coast Starlight late in the run and it ends on Sunday October 2024. It runs 1 hour and 30 minutes without intermission. Ticket and other information here:
Extra Credit Reading: The program.
