A few columns back I extolled the virtue of the smaller companies in town. In particular, I have always found the work of Upstream Theater, which focuses on translated/foreign plays premiering in the U.S., to be fascinating and rewarding. The current offering, De Kus (The Kiss) by Dutch playwright Ger Thijs, with translation by Paul Evans, is an excellent example of theater that charms and engenders discussion.
Under the direction of Kenn McLaughlin, artistic director of Stages Repertory Theatre in Houston, this simple, two-actor play about lost souls asks us to take hold of our lives, to make choices rather than allowing life merely to ‘happen’ to us. The acting is strong; Lisa Tejero and Eric Dean White lead us through the woods and down a path of self-exploration from which we all benefit.
The play is wrought in lovely fashion, and to give too much of the plot is to ruin the experience for the audience. White plays a stand-up comedian and Tejero, a retired business owner with possible health issues. Both are lonely, lost souls looking for their life purpose. They’re both in boring marriages
and lead boring lives. Their meeting is unexpected, although it seems as if White’s Man purposely confronts strangers to hear their stories, which he may, or may not, use in his comedy routine or to measure against his own life. Tejero’s Woman reacts indifferently and then bitterly before thawing and allowing this stranger in.
The play comes to this: Many people live their lives allowing life to happen to them and making the choice not to choose. Or waiting for a defining experience to wake them and show them their purpose. Once a ‘defining moment’ happens, do we recognize it as such? Finally, if it happens, and we recognize it, do we act upon it intelligently or with impetuousness?
De Kus also provokes the question of why and how we might share personal information with a total stranger rather than telling our family and friends, and how strangers can shine a light on our lives that allows us to see where and who we really are.
Kudos must also be given to scenic designer Michael Heil, who contributes a set worthy of contemplation. Mostly a serene, wooded landscape, it contains an ever-changing signpost, allowing fewer and fewer choices as the journey continues, a sad, but beautifully fashioned metaphor. De Kus continues at the Kranzberg Arts Center through Oct. 25.
[on the marquee]
» The Oregon Shakespeare Festival and The One-Minute Play Festival team up to co-produce Every 28 Hours, a national partnership focused on the widely shared and contested statistic that a black person is killed by the police every 28 hours in the United States. The Every 28 Hours plays will consist of 60-plus one-minute plays inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, with participation by playwrights across the nation. This is a free event Oct. 24 at the Kranzberg Arts Center.
Pictured: Eric Dean White and Lisa Tejero in De Kus
Photo: Peter Wochniak
