STAGE WEST: Chalk Circle Collective's "The Strangers"

The cast of "The Strangers."                                                          Photo courtesy of Chalk Circle Collective

            The fledgling Chalk Circle Collective (Megan Carmitchel, Michael Cusimano, Frankie Errington) describes its mission and its work as artist-centered, and I quote from its mission statement, to “empower artists to take ownership of the theatrical experience by providing a safe space to collaborate, to risk, and to innovate.”
            This company’s first multi-actor production (following the two-handers “Turn of the Screw” and “Constellations”) couldn’t be more in line with that avowed mission. Christopher Oscar Pena’s epic “The Strangers,” which Chalk Circle is giving its West Coast premiere, is a collaborative effort from a cast of eight local actors, director Coleman Ray Clark, and a sizable production team (for this staging is in the Old Town Theatre, formerly the home of Cygnet). It’s also risky, because “The Strangers” blurs the fourth wall, weaves in and out of fiction, and is guaranteed to mess with your head by the time its two and a half hours have concluded.
            As for innovative, that will depend on your definition of the word. I will say that I haven’t seen a production quite like this one. “The Strangers” can be unsettling at times and definitely confounding. If it was playwright Pena’s intention to re-imagine Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town” to some extent, he’s more than succeeded. These characters, mired in the darkness and inscrutability of Everytown, are not the folksy folks of Grover’s Corners, even at their most troubled.
            All this said, Pena’s storytelling is serpentine and self-indulgent, a piercing inquiry into the ditches and booby traps of life – alienation, disappointment, depression, suicide, ennui – right up to the point that he seems to tell us, as if enervated by his own ruminations, “F-it, neither love nor happiness is destined to win out.”
            A staging of “Our Town” is the backdrop for the story, though it doesn’t factor in any paramount way into what’s going down. Yes, the apparent protagonist cris (Steven Lone) has returned to what may or may not be his hometown because of the production, and there’s a brief snit about who’s made the cast and who hasn’t. But you could take the “Our Town” thing out completely and it would hardly make a difference.
            Of greater exigency for cris is his fast-track attraction to dave (Jake Bradford), who’s there at the outset to show him around town.
            Meanwhile, dave’s sister Emily (Kimberly Weinberger) is, she says, in love with pearl (Michael Amira Temple) but nonetheless urging pearl to go through with her intention to kill herself. Uh, OK.
            There’s niegel (Michael DiRoma), who is passionate about a protest event and is angry that diego (Javier David), cris’ brother, is more interested in canoodling with his girlfriend (Kelsey Venter).
            Leave us not forget a wedding planner (Venter again) and a homeless woman (Lauren King Thompson), both of whom have a lot to say about the state of impermanence and despair respectively.
            Most of the characters – or other characters portrayed by cast members – speak directly to the audience in monologues. Have to say, it’s a device I’ve never warmed to in the theater, though heaven knows it’s been employed a lot.
            There are two gripping monologues just the same, and they are by far the strongest moments of Pena’s text. The first is delivered by the homeless woman, accomplished by Thompson in an almost matter-of-fact tone that gives her observations just the right mixture of street wisdom and cynicism. Even better is cris’ second-act-opening soliloquy about his relationship with his Catholic mother, about his homosexuality and his mother’s reaction to it, about his ethnic heritage, about who and what God is, about the elusiveness of a genuine romance or the absence of just being held, and loved.
            That is indeed a helluva lot to cover in one monologue, yet its very overload of thoughts and emotions compels us to listen and feel. It’s an affecting and impressive turn from Steven Lone, one that the remainder of “The Strangers” has no chance of living up to afterward.
            The story winds its way toward the occasion of a wedding between cris and dave, though one that feels foredoomed. When a betrayal is revealed, the doubts are heightened. What happens next is … let’s leave it at that. Pena will take you somewhere you probably – likely – did not expect to go.
            These characters are strangers when it comes down to it, from each other and from themselves. I can’t be sure that’s what Pena is endeavoring to tell us utmost, but such a conclusion is inescapable.
            Director Clark is a friend of the playwright’s, and Pena himself was present during early rehearsals, so it can be safely assumed that his vision is faithfully translated to the stage. It’s done so with an industrious cast in support of Lone (though this is really an ensemble piece). I only wish that Michael Amira Temple, who’s always a dynamic presence onstage, had more to do.
            Though there was a delay in the house on opening night, “The Strangers” proceeded evidently with all its technical enhancements intact, including sound, lighting and fog effects that factor into the production in a startling and revealing way.
            Here’s acknowledging the contributions of Sammy Webster (lighting design) and Syd Showers (assistant lighting design), Steven Leffue (sound design) and technical director Chad Ryan.
            “The Strangers” is a bit strange, but as with innovative that’s a relative term. Even if it’s trying too mightily to be meaningful, it’s an adventurous slice of theater. It’s also a bold step forward for Chalk Circle Collective.
            “The Strangers” runs through Nov. 30 at the Old Town Theatre.