The abstract nature of the production is evident as the first of the trio of plays, “Infinite Alice,” opens in silence to Lotta (Emily Shinay ’11) and Charlie (Daniel Freije ’11), two childhood friends sitting back-to-back on a stage marked decisively with cosmic rings. The two have delightful chemistry as they sketch furiously and continually “switch” artwork and perspective between one another. Shinay turns in a charming performance as the young Lotta who, plagued by an accident in her past, has resolved to be always buzzing with motion. Shinay gives the character a bubbly defiance and a quick tongue — one that apparently has a taste for pastries. We come to sympathize with Lotta as she limps assertively about the stage attempting to “stay in infinite motion,” “capture everything” and block reality with the artificial defenses of her mind, such as the imagined “Alice.” When at the end of the play Lotta finally falls still, a passerby asks Charlie if she is all right, to which he responds ironically, “she just needs a little time.”
On a dark stage illuminated by a glowing square of light, Diandra Partridge ’11 plays a tragic female character in “Blackbody,” the second of the three plays. She brings a deep intensity to the role of a desperate woman struggling with loneliness. Partridge addresses the audience directly, outlining the intricacies of an elusive relationship and the self-doubt that has plagued it. She is stern and honest yet refreshingly funny when she asserts that she is “not a virgin” and that crossing her legs makes her “nervous.” The segment ends effectively with the woman breaking slowly into the mysterious light that illuminates the stage. She becomes a human embodiment of a blackbody, an object that sucks up the light of everything around it.
The final play brings all three actors together, with the addition of Elle Chimiak ’08 as the eerie overseer, in “8 Minutes 21 Seconds,” a segment referring to the amount of time it takes for sunlight to reach the earth. This final one-act play effectively demonstrates the phenomena by repeating several abstracted forms of the same, ordinary Tuesday morning. Max (Freije) charms as the steady young man who seems to mediate between the mundane — what to have for breakfast — and the deeply moving — an explosion at city hall and the death of Suzette. The voices of the characters overlap as they struggle to get through this morning of paralleling segments. The play leaves the audience in a state of contemplation as it concludes with an unsettling take on the world’s demise, in which the “end” comes in cold and silence.
Fenson makes the most abstract concepts of scientific and human contemplation relatable through her dynamic characters. “I wanted to try and connect with the audience on a raw emotional level, but also an intellectual one,” she explained. Without the clutter of sets, props, or elaborate staging, the plays demonstrate a true contrast between the raw, stripped down emotions of human beings and the cosmic mysteries that they cannot control. When asked what she would want an audience member to take away from the performance, Fenson said, “The most gratifying response I saw was from a friend who just sat in her seat after the lights came up, completely absorbed in thought. If the show really deeply affected people like that, no matter what they might think of the plays, then that’s exciting to me.”