“T.I.C. (Trenchcoat In Common)” at Main Stage West, Sebastopol CA

Reviewed by Suzanne and Greg Angeo

Members, San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle

Photos by Ilana Niernberger

Wicked, Mesmerizing Fun in a “Trenchcoat”

Clockwise from top left-Trevor Phillips, Gary Grossman, Rick Hill, Dana Scott, Ivy Rose Miller, Jacquelyn Wells

Somehow it’s fitting that Main Stage West’s production of T.I.C. (Trenchcoat In Common) opened on Friday the 13^th. This latest work by popular San Francisco playwright Peter Sinn Nachtrieb is a scary-funny crazy-quilt of carefully crafted misfits and oddballs, Nachtrieb’s stock in trade. They’re all suffering, to one degree or another, from the disconnected interconnectedness that has come to define modern life. T.I.C.premiered in San Francisco in 2009, commissioned and produced by the Encore Theatre Company. It starts off as an abstract dark comedy about isolation and secrecy, and evolves into an elaborate, captivating whodunit.

After her mother’s sudden death, a cynical and disaffected teenaged girl called the Kid (a superbly hyperkinetic Ivy Rose Miller) arrives on the doorstep of the father she never knew (a sensitive and funny Rick Hill, also MSW’s new Managing Director). He shares a big, lovely old Victorian house in San Francisco with four eccentric “tenants in common”. Each has their own private flat, and each inhabits their own private universe.

We’ve got the trenchcoat-clad undercover flasher Terence (an amazingly versatile Gary Grossman). Smoking endless bowls of weed is the sinister aging hippie Claudia (delivered with savage intensity by Jacquelyn Wells). There’s the obnoxiously cheerful Sabra (a manic, brilliant comic turn by Dana Scott), not to be outdone by the obnoxiously morose musician wanna-be Shye (a convincing Trevor Phillips).

And the Dad? He’s a very likeable, sincere guy, maybe just a little bit too hooked on internet gay porn. He really wants to be a good father, but how can he befriend this young stranger when she pushes him away, scornfully calling him “the seed source” and finally just “the source”?

Rejecting all emotional and physical contacts, the Kid’s laptop is her window on the
world. She lives life through her blog, Facebook and Google, an outsider still curious about others. The loss of her mother, the one person she had connected with, is like a fresh wound that must be shielded. She observes from a safe distance, an emotional girl who avoids emotional contact.

From left-Trevor Phillips, Jacquelyn Wells, Dana Scott, Gary Grossman, Rick Hill

The neighbors have windows, and she becomes obsessed with their secrets. “All adults hide things”, she insists. But with growing alarm she discovers that sometimes it’s best to leave rocks where they are; or sometimes not. If you look under them, you may not like what crawls out. Or you may just save lives.

Sheri Lee Miller is at the helm and draws wonderful performances from the talented cast. She effectively highlights the isolation of the four T.I.C. characters (and also the Kid and her Dad) with their placement on stage; together but separate, each emerging in turn to proclaim their own manifesto. But while the story onstage is fascinating and funny, it lacks a clear focus and doesn’t seem to know what it wants to be. Is it a freak show, a mystery, a dark comedy, or a mashup of all of the above? The audience is free to decide. One thing is clear: T.I.C. is a provocative, original and very entertaining show.