Time Travelers

John Steppling's Phantom Luck

Comments (0) By Steven Leigh Morris Thursday, Nov 4 2010

Storm's Jerry has an appealing crustiness and rich timbre to his voice; Gerdes' shrugging, thin-voiced Anson works in counterpoint — they are the Mutt and Jeff of the California-Nevada desert, with more on their minds than in their brains.

Kadina De Elejalde haunts Anson with visions of life after death. She's a beauty from El Salvador with thick mascara and eternal verities to spare. Rolston's ghost Johnny circles around Jerry. He's a peacock gambler, just hanging around to watch, with a slicked-hair, '30s-noir style and echoes of Christopher Walken. Compared to Anson's compassionate ghost, Johnny is largely fueled by his contempt and disgust for how low his ward, Jerry, has fallen — a contempt entirely justified by Jerry's once expensive and now crumpled suit. Johnny is, perhaps, the vision of how Jerry once imagined himself. The contrast is striking.

PHOTO BY BONNIE PERKINSON

Luck of the draw: George Gerdes, left, and James Storm

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The conceptual-theater director Lee Breuer recently argued that a new play should be presented exactly as the playwright intended for at least the first five productions. And one presumes that's what's being delivered here, since Steppling is the co-director. The play is so rich in concepts, however, that I long to see that sixth production, where the play turns visually and stylistically on any one of those concepts — love, remorse, aging, luck, death, immortality — rather than the text being merely illustrated. It is, however, a beautiful, smart, funny, absurdist and humane text, well rendered by the ensemble, and well worth a hearing.