There are two things to always expect (so far) in a play by the wonderfully inventive local playwright Christopher Chen: a metatheatrical spin and the unexpected.
So it is with his latest, “The Motion,” now in a world premiere at the equally risk-taking and surprising Shotgun Players in Berkeley.
The marquee signage calls this play “sci-fi,” and it is, partly.
It starts off, even before the lights go down, when a debate moderator (played by Erin Gould with appropriate gravitas) and four participants wander onto the stage to check their mics and wander off again before returning to be formally introduced.
This is to be a debate about morality among four scientists before a live audience. The topic: “Ban Animal Testing Now.” Two debaters (played by David Sinaiko and Gabrielle Maalihan) argue on the side of banning all scientific experiments with animals. The other pair (Soren Santos and Erin Mei-Ling Stuart) favor continuing as is—that is, supporting medical progress through animal experimentation, but limiting animal suffering as a top priority.
Before the debate even starts, the audience is polled: Who is in favor of the status quo? Who is against? We vote.
As the debate rages on, the expected arguments ensue (“when we see elephants mourning a family member…”; “degrees of consciousness…”) and become increasingly heated.
Scientists including William Harvey, the 17th-century doctor who first described blood circulation and the philosopher Emmanuel Kant are referenced. The “phylogenetic chain” is mentioned. Chen has, impressively, done his research.
Just when audience members are wondering if the debate is going to continue for the entire hour-and-a -half running time (without intermission), and whether they might ultimately land on the other side of the argument, and just after the moderator prompts “What does it mean to be human?” but before anyone can answer, everything changes.
And then everything, and everyone, changes again.
Ultimately, no matter how much theatergoers are invested in Chen’s quasi-realistic world, and the ideas he presents, they’re likely to be left wondering about their own convictions.
Lest this all sound too lofty, it must be said that the universe Chen invented to explore nothing less than, as the moderator queries, what it means to human—and with the players trapped possibly as guinea pigs in a kind of benign “No Exit” trap—is at times quite funny.
There’s romance, and visual beauty (thanks to designers Nina Ball and Espen Garner, set and lights respectively), and the characters (played by an all-around excellent cast directed by Shotgun founder-artistic director Patrick Dooley) are fully realized, expressing some of the same thoughts and feelings—anger, frustration, existential confusion—audiences likely have experienced at times.
Only the ending—while just as unexpected and borderline absurdist as everything else in the play–is a letdown. Chen’s otherwise hyper-real vision misses the mark here. But no spoilers. See for yourself.
Shotgun Players’ “The Motion” continues through Oct. 12 on the Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., Berkeley. Tickets are $12 to $80 at shotgunplayers.org.
The post Review: Shotgun Players’ ‘The Motion’ keeps audiences guessing appeared first on Local News Matters.