By Jason and Alisha Hagey
As usual, Salt Lake Acting Company provides a powerful, poignant experience with their latest production, Egress, by Melissa Crespo and Sarah Saltwick. From word one, you are grabbed and pulled into the narrative discourse. Suffering from a variation of post-traumatic stress disorder – still suffering from trauma – an unnamed woman is our avatar in exploring what it means to face our fears and to feel safe. Throughout Egress’ runtime, tension, self-doubt, psychological distress, and harsh uncertainty are thrust upon us as an audience. Egress is a new take on a timely theme, one that requires us to be a part of something that is inexplicable and inescapable in our modern social climate.
Colette Robert (Director) is skillful in creating a fluid story that flows from breaking the fourth wall to “in the moment” storytelling to hallucinatory experience. Never, at any given moment, is it unclear what is happening on stage, though there are times it is hard to tell the difference between reality and dream – something intentional – the thin line between what is actual and what is in the mind, blurred. Robert gives us a phenomenological encounter as both participant and observer, a unique and intimate theatrical affair.
In architectural vernacular, an egress refers to an entire exit system from a building: stairs, corridors, and evacuation routes outside the building. In broader terms, the dictionary defines egress as the action of going out of or leaving a place. Reanne Acasio (You), an architecture professor, deals with the need for an escape from the circumstances of her life all while trying to find that exit into safety. She moves through the first protocol of a crisis situation (run) only to realize that her nightmares continue to pursue her. All she can do now is hide. Acasio deftly navigates the intricacies of You. She makes everything personal, relatable, and grounded. Her torment becomes our own anguish because we, through her, are one. She is all of us, and we are Acasio – right now, at the present moment. How can she feel safe, even if it is just Security Theatre?
There is a discussion, instigated by Vee Vargas (Woman). They are speaking to You and grappling over the complexities of owning a gun and feeling safe. Woman mentions that yes, she owns guns. As the discussion furthers, You asks if the guns are loaded. Woman says that no, they are locked up for safety. You then follows with the idea of, ‘how can you be safe if your gun isn’t accessible and loaded?’ Vargas delivers the next statement with profound simplicity. “There are different kinds of safety,” (I apologize if I remembered the line incorrectly). This statement is at the crux of Vargas’ compelling characterization. Vargas is taxed with playing two very different characters and her fluidity and commitment to both are beautiful.
As a man playing many characters, J.C. Ernst (Man) quickly transforms and defines each individual with a subtle performance. He is awkward and naive as a student, kind and charming as an elementary school teacher, flippant as a gun seller, and menacing as an ex-partner. Ernst’s fleeting moments with You give us opportunities to understand just how remarkable and damaging You’s life has been up to this point. Where Vargas gives us a furthering discussion of themes, Ernst gives us the results of those themes on our psyche.
Entering the theater, we are immediately met with Dennis Hassan’s (Scenic Design) expressive set design. Three walls are composed of various types of doors, overlapping both for thematic aesthetic and for practical use. Their disjointed, uneven appearance reflects the fractured thinking of our protagonist. Rarely do we see a set that is as much a defining symbol of the play while also being a minimalist interpretation of space done with such brilliance.
The lighting and sound designs punctuate the many moments throughout the play and Jessica Greenberg’s (Lighting Design) and Jennifer Jackson’s (Sound Design) creations help Robert’s vision come to life. Time, place, incongruous moments are captured in the metaphorically potent designs, the two playing in perfect tandem as a unified effort with thrilling effect.
Acting multiple parts is hard enough, but without good costume design, those parts would be even more difficult. Dominique Fawn-Hill’s (Costume Design) costumes are metamorphic. For instance, in part, because the costumes are outstanding, Vargas’ performance of the two roles is enhanced to the point of Vargas disappearing into the characters. So thoroughly is she transformed by Fawn-Hill’s costumes, not reading the cast list you might not realize that they are the same actor.
Egress is a profound psychological experience. Melissa Crespo and Sarah Saltwick have crafted a thought-provoking and discussion-inducing story that doesn’t let go. The direction, action, and design culminate into a multi-layered, nuanced event worthy of adulation. The playwright and theatre theorist Bertolt Brecht believed the purpose of a play (more than entertainment or the reproduction of reality) is to present ideas and invite us (the audience) to make judgments on those ideas. Egress presents to the audience many ideas and we are invited, at the play’s end, to come up with our own thinking on those concepts. Salt Lake Acting Company’s production of Egress is theatre at its very best.
Salt Lake Acting Company Presents Egress by Melissa Crespo and Sarah Saltwick
Salt Lake Acting Company – Upstairs Theatre – 168 West 500 North, Salt Lake City, Utah, 84103
In Person: February 2, 2022 – February 20, 2022
Streaming: February 21, 2022 – March 6, 2022
In Person Ticket Cost: $30 – $44
Streaming tickets ($20/household for a 48-hour viewing window) will be available on SLAC Digital closer to February 21st.
Box Office Phone: 801.363.7522
Box Office Email: info@saltlakeactingcompany.org
Open 11am – 5pm, Mon – Fri
www.saltlakeactingcompany.org
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Open Captioned Performance
February 20th at 6:00pm
Streaming production to feature closed captioning
Audio Described Performance
February 16th at 7:30pm
Sensory Performance
February 15th at 7:30pm
ASL Interpreted Performance
February 10th at 7:30pm
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