A very strange day unfolds at in a new play at the Stray Cat Theater in Tempe. Here’s theater critic Robrt Pela.
Elizabeth is a youngish suburban mother… determined to have a normal day. But there’s a tree growing, upside down, in her kitchen. Her three-headed talking dog is behaving badly . The announcer on her radio, which keeps turning itself on, is speaking directly to her. And someone keeps trying to climb out from inside her refrigerator.
Elizabeth is a character in a Steve Yockey play. A normal day doesn’t seem likely.
If Pluto comes across as one long fever dream. The point of Yockey’s surrealist story is that life isn’t always neat and tidy; in fact, it can be downright scary and quite awful. Director Ron May and his impressive company of players find each and every comic moment in Elizabeth’s dreadful day. This is a splendid production of a noteworthy play.
Its story unfolds slowly, as Elizabeth attempts to converse with her college-aged son Bailey, who’s trying to study. Both are deliberately not talking about something terrible that may have already happened; instead, they banter about the mysterious death of Bailey’s father; argue about the value of blueberry Pop Tarts; bicker about their snarky pet, played with gentle mirth by Yolanda London, all in the most suburban kitchen you’ll see on stage all season.
May has created an appropriately traditional staging for a world-gone-topsy-turvy script, and wisely refrains from restraining his players, who climb over the top of each scene without once over-acting - particularly Gabrielle Van Buren, whose full-throttle performance as a caterwauling mystery woman is both terrifying and delightful. Cole Brackney’s sometimes frantic, ultimately heartbreaking performance as Elizabeth’s oddball son makes the final moments of Yockey’s peculiar story all the more touching.
Michael Peck, who joins the fray late in Yockey’s story, plays Death with a barely perceptible sneer, the subtle equivalent to a wink at the audience that says, “I’m having a blast!” And frankly, so are we, watching both Peck’s controlled performance and this dark, fascinating story.
Robrt Pela’s theater reviews appear in Phoenix New Times .