STAGE WEST: "Donna Orbits the Moon" at Scripps Ranch Theatre

Susan Clausen stars in "Donna Orbits the Moon."                                                      Photo by Ken Jacques

            It’s clear very early on in “Donna Orbits the Moon” that its protagonist, a gooseberry-blondie-baking suburban housewife who sounds like Marge Gunderson from “Fargo,” is not herself. She slaps a fellow shopper at the supermarket. She chases a motorist who cut her off until she runs out of gas. She tries to assault a woman at church with a Bible.
            But what seems at first like major anger management issues turns out to be far more complicated in Scripps Ranch Theatre’s production of Ian August’s 2011 one-person play. When Donna (Susan Clausen) begins hearing the disembodied voice of Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin telling her that she “must go up before you can land,” she’s crossed over into, as Rod Serling famously narrated, “the Twilight Zone.”
            The 90-minute-long “Donna Orbits the Moon,” however, is not science fiction or supernatural drama. The truths of Donna’s life and the explanation for her outbursts and mental torment become more and more tangible – and understandable -- as the story unfolds.
            Scripps Ranch Theatre first presented “Donna Orbits the Moon” during the pandemic shutdown of local theaters, with Clausen starring and Kandace Crystal directing in a streaming production. This onstage reiteration also directed by Crystal allows them to enhance the storytelling with sound design and projections (by Ted Leib) in the small theater on the Alliant University campus and to present a more fluid space for the actor to move – a must for a one-person show reliant upon that one-on-one between performer and audience.
            For at least the first half of “Donna Orbits the Moon” Donna’s misbehavior can be interpreted as ornery eccentricity and her delusions fanciful. Even though it isn’t long before her unseen husband Gil begins urging her to “go to the hospital.” (Also unseen are the couple’s grown children Terry and Charley.)
            A seemingly benign trip to the library in search of books on astronaut Aldrin, who was the second man to walk on the moon in 1969, is a pivot point. One children’s book on Aldrin in particular will lead the growingly desperate Donna to the light.
            Though August wrote the play years ago, its lunar shadings are quite relevant, with NASA’s Artemis program planning a mission to orbit the moon sometime this year and the first manned landing since 1972 eyed for next year or in 2028.  Still, the moon and space devices of the script feel somewhat strained to me, and I admittedly puzzled on them until that aforementioned visit to the library Donna makes.
            That aside, this production is a grand achievement for Clausen, whose unflagging energy, knack for comedy and ultimate baring of soul make Donna a fully realized person whose personal trauma is shared by all too many people. To say more would be to undermine the stages of Donna’s journey for audiences at SRT.
            Seeing “Donna Orbit the Moon” reminded me of something Aldrin once said about whether he took for granted his magnificent lunar adventure: “Just imagine looking up at the night sky and seeing the moon and thinking: I have been there.”
            “Donna Orbits the Moon” runs through Feb. 15 at Scripps Ranch Theatre.