We humans have an apparently insatiable urge for dystopian dramas, what with the popularity of shows such as The Last of Us and The Handmaid’s Tale. It’s only natural, since it is compelling to wonder what life would be like if, you know, everything in the world turned into a glistening tower of shit in one way or another.
In After the Blast, now at Convergence-Continuum theater, playwright Zoe Kazan imagines that an apocalypse of unspecific origin has devastated the world, driving remaining survivors into underground bunkers where they have existed, apparently, for at least a couple generations. This is a fascinating premise with some genuinely witty and insightful dialogue, but the production is undermined by a couple shortcomings that gum up the works.
As it plays out on Cory Molner’s clean and efficient scenic design, complete with Star Trek-ish sliding doors, an autocratic government is in charge of the mole-like subterranean life, where people must be approved for fertility in order to have children. And where the only psychic relief comes from implanted brain chips that allow those who choose to indulge, a “sim” a day at the beach or the taste of a medium-rare steak.
The focus is quickly put on one couple, Anna (Carolyn Demanelis) and Oliver (Patrick Warner), who long to have a child. But Anna has been turned down due to her chronic depression. Her husband is one of the “re-habitation” scientists who are developing technology so these denizens of the earthly deep can eventually return to the surface and resume something resembling a normal life.
Since Anna dislikes the impersonal aspects of the sim technology that other use, Oliver thinks it will improve her spirit if she can help train a “helper robot,” an R2D2-like, toddler-sized computer with eyes and arms and a wicked, unintentional sense of humor.
The idea is that Anna will train the robot, which she names Arthur, so it can then be placed in a home that needs its services. As she teaches Artie words, then language, and ultimately more sophisticated human-like talents, she begins to emerge from her challenged mental state. For his part, Arthur turns into a charm-bot, becomes very relatable, and begins to ask probing questions that make Anna pause and reflect.
This extended sequence is the heart of Kazan’s play, and it works well as Demanelis invests Anna with just the right combination of yearning and cynicism. But Arthur gets most of the best lines—as voiced by Michael Montanus and operated on stage, à la The Lion King puppeteers, by Alex Strzemilowski in a gray skin-tight zentai suit. When Anna explains to Arthur that she is a “woman,” Arthur asks if that is her job. The knowing laughter that ensues from the audience is indicative of how innocent little Artie worms his way into her heart.
Unfortunately, the flow of the piece is hampered by director Eva Nel Brettrager’s metronomic pacing, and her inability to help Warner find a hook and an arc for his character. Although he displays some fleeting affability, he never fully inhabits his character but only visits it for a phrase here and there, which are lumbered with long, loitering pauses.
The most active part of the set is a screen featuring projections which—while executed professionally by Neil Sudhakaran—are often just swatches of wallpaper that fight with Kazan’s evocative descriptions of the same images.
While the script has many positive aspects, it isn’t perfect. A subplot involving Anna and Oliver’s friends Carrie (Katherine Nash) and Patrick (Mike Frye) exists primarily for one scene and goes nowhere. And when the time comes for Arthur to be handed off to his intended owner, the emotion of the moment is overwhelmed by an unnecessarily complicated transfer involving a Hispanic woman named Margarita (Cat R. Kenney) who has a brain chip that enables her to understand English but not speak it.
Those glitches undermine the final scene, which should be shattering. Instead, it’s lost in a miasma of unearned beats and flaccid line deliveries.
After the Blast has a lot on its mind, with the wit to make those ideas ignite. But this con-con production only fitfully realizes the potential of Kazan’s material.
After the Blast
Through April 22, produced by Convergence-Continuum at the Liminis Theater, 2438 Scranton Road, Cleveland, 216-687-0074, convergence-continuum.org.
Coming soon: Cleveland Scene Daily newsletter. We’ll send you a handful of interesting Cleveland stories every morning. Subscribe now to not miss a thing.
Follow us: Google News | NewsBreak | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter
This article appears in Mar 22 – Apr 5, 2023.
