Woody’s [rating:5]
Analisa Leaming as Sara Jane is supported by Jeff Pew as Jerry in “Arlington.” Photo: Jennifer Reiley.
“Arlington” is a harsh study in contradictions.
Its world premiere at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco is all about naïveté and forced awakening.
It’s about distortions and truth.And it’s about a war across the globe and a girl-woman’s introspective fight to ease her mind and soul.
I find the play’s themes neither profound nor original yet am pleased it intentionally focuses on a couple that’s “not special…just normal…boring, in fact…like people in love.”
It’s a creative masterwork, a theatrical tour de force.
Possibly because it concentrates on those patriotic kids next door who can’t possibly fathom in advance what lies ahead.
“People are a mystery,” she confesses.
Sara Jane, a Pollyanna type, futilely tries to keep things upbeat while waiting for her husband, Jerry, who’s trapped in the middle of the muddle called Iraq.
She’d been coping well until he emailed videos of atrocities — women and children being killed and burned in a ditch.
Did he only photograph them, or did he participate? She excuses either action: “Sometimes the cost is innocent people…innocent people always die in a war.”
And I doubt that she could dwell on the notion she might have become a distant chunk of collateral damage.
She does, however, ponder the possibility of her husband’s death, mentally and emotionally tying it to her brother being blown apart in another war and her visit as a child to Arlington National Cemetery with her colonel father.
She considers, too, her husband’s current horniness and past crudeness and voracious sexual appetite. But she justifies those as well: “All men are sort of pigs.”
Analisa Leaming is amazing as Sarah Jane in this odd, unique one-hour, sing-through.
Her voice any given moment can totally express joy; a fragile, paralyzed Barbie Doll the next. Her face, similarly, can portray happiness or the anguish of questioning everything she’s believed in forever.
I find it marvelous that she gets to sing lyrics that aren’t fancy but in completely accessible, everyday language.
Obie-winner Polly Pen’s music distinctly adds to the atmosphere. It’s as choppy and fragmented as Sarah Jane’s thought processes (with the resultant dramatic pianistics overlaying the jerky James Joycean stream-of-consciousness).
Meanwhile, multiple sprinklings of humor — dark and sometimes unsettling — add texture to the play, which is skillfully directed by Jackson Gay.
Some mysteries, on the other hand, become minuses because they’re never resolved, merely hinted at.
For example, will Sara Jane, despite being pregnant, become a frequent drinker like her plastic surgery-addicted mother?
In toto, though, “Arlington” is unlike any musical I’ve ever seen — basically a one-woman show with the added fillip of a second strictly-in-her-head character onstage playing the piano.
And the piano artistry of the casually dressed, bearded Jeff Pew (a triple threat since he’s also the musical director and portrays Jerry) is astounding, especially when he’s in sync with thunderstorm sounds created by Sara Huddleston.
His percussive piano chords eventually become a deafening metaphor for Jerry’s losing control.
On reflection, I think the play itself may be a metaphor for what are alluded to as “bad dreams” and “devils of the past.”
Are those devils fabricated, or are they the real “foreigners” Sara Jane thinks may be terrorists? Are they akin to “little black bugs” that should be exterminated?
It makes me wonder if, in fact, the new American military mantra has been boiled down to, “Kill them before they kill you.”
There may be no uncomplicated or definitive answer, but either way, Pen, an Obie-winner, correctly labels this production a “musical that delights with breaking rules.”
It’s her first collaboration with Victor Lodato, who wrote the book and lyrics.
Lodato, whose award-winning play, “The Eviction,” was staged at the Magic in 2002, refers to “Arlington” as an “audacious new work” and says he and Pen are “doggedly trying to explore some uncharted territory in music theatre.”
I’ve become a true believer: In “Arlington,” the Pen and Lodato team may have reached the apex of their joint aspirations.
“Arlington” plays at the Magic Theatre, Building D, Fort Mason Center, Marina Boulevard and Buchanan Street, San Francisco, through Sunday, Dec. 8. Performances Wednesdays through Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Tuesdays, 7 p.m.; matinees, Wednesdays and Sundays, 2:30 p.m. Tickets: $15 to $60. Information: (415) 441-8822 or www.magictheatre.org.
