Victor Lodato's Arlington
2013-11-13
Magic Theatre
Fort Mason Center, Building D, 3rd Floor; San Francisco, CA
8:00 PM, Wednesday, November 13, 2013

[~8:10 PM lights down, house announcements]

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    [set ends 9:m PM]

[9:m PM lights down, announcements]

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3. [9:00 PM] ? [Q&A ends 9:m PM]

• Analisa Leaming as Sara Jane: upright piano, vox;
• Jeff Pew as Jerry: baby grand piano, vox.

• Eric Flatmo: set design;
• Jackson Gay: director;
• Antonia Gunnarson: costumes;
• Sara Huddleston: sound design;
• Victor Lodato: playwright, lyricist;
• Polly Pen: music;
• Jeff Rowlings: lighting.

Thankfully, tonight's play wasn't nearly as dark and disturbing as Buried Child! Arlington relates the inner turmoil of a military wife coming to grips with conflicts between her proper role – the perky, supportive wife – and the reality that her husband isn't necessarily the heroic soldier of her dreams.

The stage craft was pretty interesting: for the vast majority of the play, Sara Jane is sing-speaking her inner monologue to the audience, accompanied by Jerry's piano-as-backgound-music. Polly Pen has done a really good job at writing a score that translates audio cues from Jerry's piano into a variety of expressive functions, like evoking the passing thunderstorm in the very first scene. Another bit that I liked was the way that Victor Lodato punctuated Sara Jane's monologue several times with brief bits that pierced the “fourth wall”, inviting the audience into the performance.

On the down side, the chronological flow of the play seemed somewhat inconsistent. A night into morning scene to start; then morning into afternoon waiting for mom; drunk in the evening after mom's visit; and last it seemed to bog down in the end as Sara Jane's crisis was revealed. I could understand this if I relate it to the cinematic pan-and-zoom that closes in on a key visual element – this being a dramaturgical equivalent – but my experience during the play was discomfort – is this thing over yet? – nope, not quite… – and closing with repetition of Sara Jane's children's song about the Moon in the House did nothing to resolve that tension.

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