Madeline Key as “Now” Jane. Photo by Ryan Maxwell Photography.
With all that the Women’s Voices Theater Festival has to offer, it isn’t a question of whether to go out for an evening of live theater, but when and where. The topics of the 50 plays on tap range the whole world over, from Afghanistan to Erma Bombeck and beyond. We’re in for a great two months of play-going, “regular season” be damned.
The Oregon Trail is a treat…
Oh – and need I add that New York, that overpriced, overfed ego of a town, hasn’t got the guts to put women’s plays on the stage like we do? The City ain’t even worth the Megabus fare, folks—when it comes to women’s plays we’ve got them beat every which way.
Our Motto: “Washington, DC – We Don’t Care How They Do it In New York”
Which brings me to local favorite Flying V—a theater company that has distinguished itself over the years for its sense of fun, not to mention its uncanny sense of popular culture. Flying V’s contribution to the Festival is a lively, somewhat nostalgic trip back to the late 1990’s, complete with lobby décor evocative of the era by Audience Designer, Tia Shearer Bassett. (A personal favorite being the cloth photo book, featuring company members back in the 90s!).
Flying V’s world premiere offering is Bekah Brunstetter’s The Oregon Trail, which explores teenage angst through the fractured lens of a melancholy teen who grows, reluctantly, into equally morose adulthood. Brunstetter skillfully explores contemporary issues by contrasting them with the struggles of Oregon’s original settlers, who braved the months-long trek from Missouri in the mid-1800s.
The show opens with “Now” Jane (played with delightful edge by Madeline Key) moping around the computer room at her Junior High, decked out in Salvation Army chic (kudos to Kathryn Kawecki’s costuming). Forced to wait for her older sister Mary Anne to finish her violin lesson, Jane’s sole consolation is a retro video game where she gets to play a young pioneer Jane (“Then” Jane, played affectingly by Kelsey Meiklejohn) setting out on the Oregon Trail.
Through simultaneous staging—Kawecki’s hard work again—a wagon emerges opposite Jane’s computer desk and we meet a hard-scrabble pioneer family, the widower Clancy (Ryan Tumulty, in another fine turn) and his daughters, “Then” Jane and her elder sister Mary Anne. The elder sister, both “Then” and “Now,” is given a solid portrayal by Julia Klavans. Like all elder siblings, Mary Anne has the unpleasant task of setting an example for her kid sister; dramas are rarely written about them, but elder siblings are the measure by which the protagonist usually fails. “Now” Jane’s fling with her Jr. High heart-throb Billy (the appropriately vain Will Hayes) ends in near-disaster, setting off a final confrontation with Mary Anne who, truth be known, hasn’t had much success in the guy department either.
Brunstetter’s sense of time and place for this drama is exquisite, because educational video games in those days were crude. The software was loaded onto, of all things, a floppy disc; the visuals were beyond primitive, and the prompts for your role were delivered exclusively in terms of text. This enables Jane (and the audience) to experience game through a lively, snarky dialogue with Zachary Fernebok, who plays the Voice of the Oregon Trail. The game’s prompts are quickly merged with Jane’s paranoia, and Fernebok proceeds to narrate Jane’s bleak future when he’s not demanding that her Pioneer-self choose among an increasingly stark list of options.
Flying V regulars have grown accustomed to a company that explores every new play – whether text or developed through improve—with irreverence and a hip sensibility. Neil McFadden’s unerring sense for the musical era, and the TV sitcoms of the 90s, adds another dimension to the antics here, and is more than welcome.
The Oregon Trail is a treat, especially for audiences of a particular age – but even for those of us who belong to another era, the evocation of the 90s here is well worth the ticket.
Advisory: Oregon Trail features mature situations and a bout or two of heavy drinking; not advisable for the young ‘uns, as it might give ‘em ideers.
Running time: 90 minutes with no intermission.
Oregon Trail runs September 3-20, 2015; performances are Thursdays through Saturdays at 8pm, with Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2pm. Performances take place at The Writer’s Center, 4508 Walsh Street, Bethesda, MD.
Tickets can be purchased through Brown Paper Tickets online, or at the door starting one hour before the performance. For more information click here.
