By Jason Hagey and Alisha Hagey
Salt Lake Acting Company (SLAC), Utah’s leading destination for brave, contemporary theatre, presents the National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere of Audrey Cefaly’s Alabaster. SLAC’s digital production of Alabaster is a post-modern take on grief, the human requirement to connect with others, and the need for all of us to learn to continue after loss. “Audrey Cefaly weaves a darkly comic southern tale of redemption that examines how one reassembles the pieces of a broken heart.”
Living in Alabaster, Alabama, the sole survivor after a terrible tornado ripped through her family’s small farm, Charlotte Munson (June) is left behind, becoming a recluse unable to escape her home and the loss of her entire family. Her scarred and shattered body is a physical manifestation of her inner turmoil and shredded soul. Munson’s portrayal is arresting in its mix of anguish and anger, PTSD and poignancy. She depicts loneliness thinly veiled behind a veneer of toughness. When Munson delivers her monologue recounting her night of trauma, the digital screen fades away and we are there with her in the room. We see her horrors come alive through her retelling.
Reanne Acasio (Alice) has worked through much of her own mourning and comes as a photographer to capture in pictures the beautiful women behind their scars. She becomes the catalyst for Munson to escape the confines of her own grief, but not without first bearing her own emotional damage. Acasio is relentless. Her vulnerability shines and her inner strength resonates throughout her performance. Though her history is drastically different from Munson’s June, Acasio’s Alice demonstrates the raw connection we each have at our core. Together, Munson and Acasio confront their pasts and work for a better future.
What is more fun than a talking goat with the wisdom of Yoda and the sass of Titus Andromedon (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt)? Tamiyka White (Weezy) brings life into this initially odd choice for a mentor. White pulls no punches as she is the voice of honesty and reason in June’s broken life. Even though somewhat brusk, she is everything that June needs to begin to heal. Catherine Doherty (Bib) reflects the pain of the show and ultimately its release. Her requiem is touching and pushes others to confront that which they have been hiding from. Doherty has a hard task as an embodiment of love and pain and yet she fulfills the role with grace, giving dignity to that which seems undignified.
Originally crafted for the stage, Martine Kei Green-Rogers’s (Director) production streams into our homes and heightens that sense of disconnect, reflecting back to us the desire we all have for intimacy and physical relationships. Green-Rogers uses the separate screens (imagine Zoom used for theatre) to manifest an emotional and physical disconnect between characters that, over the course of the play, no longer hinders our experience of the cast as a cohesive whole. Her direction is deft, especially considering her limitations, and the production comes together beautifully.
Easy to miss, but nonetheless imperative to the plot of the story, the work of Shawn Fisher (Set Designer), Aaron Swenson (Costume Designer), Jessica Greenberg (Lighting Designer), and Jennifer Jackson (Sound Designer/Composer) cannot be unmentioned. With actors working remotely, this production team needs to create a seamless world despite the physical limitations. This was no easy task, but the physical spaces, the sense of lighting and mood, and especially the sound design come together to create this little, broken farm in Alabama. Kelly Donahue (Makeup Designer) has an especially daunting task of working with other makeup artists to bring her vision to life. Using an onsite assistant, Donahue works through Jolie Traylor to create the visceral scars.
Alabaster is a tale of recovery and a darkly comic journey into the madness of profound heartbreak. Filled with symbolism, Alabaster resonates with allegory. It seems that Cefaly wants us as an audience to envision the possibilities of moving beyond our own metaphorical broken farms, to venture into life, and to escape the fears and loss that have enslaved our better selves. There is always hope, no matter how much guilt we feel for surviving or sorrow we feel for loves lost. Alabaster pleads with us to venture into the unknown future. Alabaster is a play worth experiencing for all of us, either as a reminder of what we should do, what we have done, or how to react when we are confronted with grief and mourning for those we love.
Salt Lake Acting Company Presents Alabaster by Audrey Cefaly
Salt Lake Acting Company – SLAC Digital, 168 West 500 North, Salt Lake City, Utah, 84103
Streaming Only: May 10-20th, 2021
Ticket Cost: $20 per household for a 48-hour streaming window, can be obtained via SLACDigital.AtHomeArts.org
Box Office Phone: 801.363.7522
Box Office Email: info@saltlakeactingcompany.org
Open 11am – 5pm, Mon – Fri
www.saltlakeactingcompany.org
SLAC Website
SLAC Facebook Page
*This show contains strong language
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