Playing Around the Sound: Quick WrapUps of Satori Group, ArtsWest, STAGEright, and SecondStory Rep

"Returning to Albert Joseph"

Here are short impressions from attending a diverse selections of currently running plays in the area.

Until May 25, Satori Group is performing Returning to Albert Joseph which is scripted by Spike Friedman, a company member, but worked on by the collective. Friedman, in a press packet, says tentatively, that the play is about "loss." But he's afraid that by labeling it, it will make people feel like they won't want to see it. That seems strange for a company member of a group that believes so thoroughly in theatrical expression.

Directed by Caitlin Sullivan and Alex Matthews with a cast of two, LoraBeth Barr and Quinn Franzen, the play could indeed be said to be about loss. It's a very word-focused presentation about a dystopian society where it seems that people have lost the very connection to humanity: human connection. Even being friends with someone seems to threaten the very fabric of that unseen society. Who we are introduced to are outcasts who are on the run, and who have to justify themselves at every moment.