What I liked
The writing was totally unafraid to be self-indulgent and just go for what the author wanted to say even if it meandered off in tangents, deliberately avoided giving a clear explanation of the worldbuilding and just kept on talking after a more conventional writer would’ve ended the show — reminded me of an SCP wiki entry in the best possible way
All the actors shone when given the opportunity to take center stage, but special shout out to Sean James as Mike, who somehow makes the whole show work by being a character who’s seemingly wandered into the story from a totally different genre (which is literally said to be how he ended up working at this facility in-universe), and Naomi Melville as Erin, a character who in a lesser performer’s hands would’ve been the tropey cliche of the “gruff military character” but is a fully realized character from the beginning and ends up being one of the most tragic. (I was genuinely excited when I realized how naturally and unobtrusively she fell into standing at parade rest.)
What I didn't like
Jeremy Thompson as Dr. Paul and Athena Reddy as Adrian Caligos have the hardest jobs in the show and to some degree I think their characters did fall into being shticky and tropey — I felt like the gag of Dr. Paul traveling all over the office on his rolling chair without standing up wore out its welcome, and Dr. Paul may have just been given too much technobabble exposition for anyone to deliver naturally
And I can’t fault Reddy for giving the role of Caligos 100% commitment but I confess the image of the sensual madman lacing everything with sexual innuendo and literally draping himself over the scenery may have been a bit too broad for me to take seriously as a threat
Overall I can’t complain too much about being confused by a play where being confused is half the point, but I would’ve liked a little more clarity on what was going on in the first half of the play — why exactly has Caligos chosen now to return, what exactly does he think he’s going to accomplish — before everyone ends up underground and everything falls apart in the second half, my own preference is for just a little more grounding in reality before the descent into madness
I can’t deny the lyricism or the power of the vignettes the play is centered around though, or the potency of the central metaphor once you grok it — that the setting of the play itself is a “dam” holding back the torrent of trauma and experience and raw human emotion in ordinary human life
My overall impression
I was confused pretty much the whole time, but maybe that was the point. An intentionally surreal and obscure plot that serves as a vehicle for lush, lyrical prose delivered with admirable commitment by the actors
