Book-It aces "Highest Tide," Olympia coming-of-age story

Theater Review |

Cruise through your neighborhood bookstore, and you'll notice the shelves are packed with coming-of-age tales about smart, quirky adolescents growing up in challenging circumstances.

In Olympia author Jim Lynch's well-received 2006 novel, "The Highest Tide," some of the common problems of modern puberty found in such books face the 13-year-old narrator, Miles O'Malley — the possible divorce of squabbling parents, a crush on an older girl, the loss of a surrogate grandmother.

But Lynch has given young O'Malley something more: an unusual passion for marine wildlife. And Miles pursues that interest avidly in the fascinating playground of the coastal waters of South Puget Sound.

Without so much as a plastic wading pool on the Center House Theatre set, Book-It Repertory Theatre adapter-director Jane Jones and cohorts evoke the teeming bays, tidepools, beaches and sea creatures around Olympia that Lynch's prose so pungently describes.

You can almost smell the sea brine as gawky, motor-brained Miles (the perfectly cast and very endearing Kellan Larson) paddles out in his kayak. You can feel the ooze as his pal Kenny (Hunter Larsen) gets stuck in the marshland muck.

And you can readily imagine the marine oddities Miles discovers — like the giant squid that washes up far from its native habitat, kick starting the story of Miles' surprising transformation into a local media darling.

Through Miles' inquiring mind, sardonic humor and assorted adventures, "The Highest Tide" communicates what not enough high-school biology classes do: the majesty, mystery and excitement of the sea around us.

But like many an adolescent chronicle, this is also a story about maturing enough to accept the human conundrums one can't control.

Miles helplessly witnesses the physical decline of an elderly friend, Florence (Leticia Jaramillo). He realizes that Angie (a terrific Sylvie Davidson), the Courtney Love-wannabe he pines for, isn't just punky but bipolar.

A kid who reveres the late science writer Rachel Carson ("she's a god!"), and discourses on the mating habits of barnacles, Miles can seem a bit much — too preciously smart, articulate and secure in his identity to be true.

But that's the beauty of having a real adolescent and a solid actor like Larson in the role — the squeaky voice and awkward limbs are constant reminders that, yep, this is a kid who hasn't had his growth spurt yet. And even if he knows all there is to know about clams, girls remain something of a mystery.

Staged by Jones with economy and verve, and strokes of apt music played live by the actors, "The Highest Tide" ranks with "Bud, Not Buddy" as one of the best coming-of-age fictions Book-It has tackled. Is it suitable for kids? Yes, indeed — if their parents aren't bothered by a little coarse language, and some very natural adolescent curiosity about sex.

Misha Berson: mberson@seattletimes.com