Time Travel Matters in Seattle Public Theater's "Once More, Just For You"

 

Once More, Just For You (Joe Iano)

Once More, Just For You
SeattlePublic Theater and
Macha Theatre Works
Through February 25, 2024
 
A world premiere from Seattle’s preeminent sci-fi fantasy playwright, Maggie Lee, is now on stage at Seattle Public Theater (co-produced with Macha Theatre Works). The premise of Once More, Just For You is that a woman (scientist) has a time machine in her basement and is intent to do something very specific with it. What she wants and why are the two questions that fill the mystery of the play.
 
Scientist Rae (Ina Chang) has a mission to go back in time and change one very tiny, very unimportant - to the whole universe - event. She doesn’t want to change world history because that’s a step too far. She doesn’t believe that changing this one tiny event will affect much of anything else, though of course she’d never know if it did later.
 
She’s helped by a long-time employee, Sloane (Belinda Fu), who clearly cares about her a lot, and is worried because Rae seems to be jeopardizing her health as she returns over and over to this one moment in time. Sloane gives us a lot of laughs with wry one-liners that establish this friendship clearly.
 
In a two-sided set by Parmida Ziaei, we jump back and forth in time, from the basement to a house, with a sort of “null space” for time travel in-between. It works very well and is pretty instantly clear. Costumer Leny Shen helps us get to know a young woman, Yoori (Pearl Lam) from about 1950-60 through subtle period fashions. Intricate “time travel” lighting works beautifully from Dani Norberg. Director Amy Poisson pulls everything together and keeps it moving.
 
The relationship between the whirlwind, “I don’t care about conventions” Rae and the reserved, careful, cautious, and deeply self-denigrating Yoori is a fascinating one, though Lee never tells us who they are to the other until the very end. Yet, Rae is almost desperate to get Yoori to do “something different.”
 
Lam and Chang do a great job in developing a complex relationship, as we work to understand why Rae cares so much about this young woman. Every note that Lam displayed seemed perfect, in her understanding of how a young Korean immigrant might act in the middle of the 20^th century.
 
I’ve seen every (I think) Maggie Lee play done in Seattle and I have truly enjoyed her unique voice in the playwriting community. She is always inventive and so smart at conceiving of a universe with a complete story arc and then writing to that end. She knows her niche, and quite prolifically writes cogent and cohesive characters in worlds that make sense.
 
This play ends in a bit of an abrupt moment, but it makes so much sense, as well. And definitely provokes a lot of thought as you leave the theater. Go get tickets for this weekend and have great conversations afterward!
 
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