Theater review: Take a geeky romp into the future

Theater review |

Pity the poor sci-fi writers. Any fantastical future they concoct can't compete with the outlandishness of our own age.

When popular novelists like Robert Heinlein and Philip K. Dick led the sci-fi charge of the 1960s, such notions as corporate world dominance, a robotic workforce, water on Mars, etc., were still improbable.

Yesterday's fictions are, however, today's realities. And in his new play "interlace [falling star]," Seattle writer-director Scotto Moore adopts retro sci-fi pop fiction — and TV spoofs of it, such as "Red Dwarf" — to entertainingly depict a Tomorrowland that's not so far-fetched.

Moore's convoluted plot works the old amnesia gambit: A 30ish woman (played by Jen Moon) finds herself in the lobby of a high-rise building. Unable to recall who or where she is, this "stranger in a strange land" spends the next couple of hours (in theater time) trying to figure it all out.

Apparently, she's been hurled into the center of the "multiverse," to the headquarters of the United Association of Interdimensionary Travelers.

Without her "identity cube," this interloper is subjected to a "vigorous ontological screening" by a mean cop. She's also befriended by a dignified superhero, The Amazing Dr. X (imposing Stan Shields), given a "psychic orientation" and informed that the building she's in has an "infinite" number of floors.

Got all that? Neither has our weirded-out heroine, who is christened Andrea Change by her new robot servant — a chirpy sort with pink plastic hair (the delightfully androidal LaChrista Borgers).

Moore's psycho-techno babble talk is clever, amusing and weaves in some sobering reflections on theology, heroism and sociology.

Low-tech to the point of funky, with a large cast of actors (most engaging, some wooden), the author-staged debut of the play at Annex won't be winning any special-effects awards.

No biggie. What Bret Fetzer can only suggest with his utilitarian set design (a batch of movable plastic panels), Max Reichlin covers with his attentive lighting.

And funky is fine, in a show that often spoofs itself.

Sardonic bon mots are scattered throughout — in Andrea's skeptical observations, the trash-talk of a pair of decadents who hang out on the party floors of the building, and in such deadpan statements as Dr. X's, "I'm just a superhero. I don't work miracles."

"Interlace" darkens as the plotline grows more apocalyptic — and harder to follow. And it gets less coherent, especially in the bloated second act with its stock demonic villainy, embittered slacker Savior, and surfeit of techno-twaddle.

Otherwise, Moore conjures a fairly logical extension of our wired world, with geeky authority and natural comic flair. And he questions, with cause, whether it will be possible to believe in anyone (or anything) in the (very near) future.

Moore, by the way, is an industrious multimedia artist, best known for his Web-based drama series, "CHERUB: The Vampire With Bunny Slippers," and other Internet endeavors.

And he's right at home on Planet Annex.

Misha Berson: mberson@seattletimes.com

Annex Theatre announces '08-09 season

Annex Theatre, now well-ensconced in its latest walk-up venue on Capitol Hill, is planning a busy 2008-09.

The fringe company will launch its mainstage season in October with "The Moon is a Dead World," a new play from the nationally known, prolific Mike Daisey. It is described as "a dark and hilarious fairy tale set against the Cold War."

Also planned on the mainstage:

"Broadcast From In-Between," a world-premiere play with songs, by Bret Fetzer and Juliet Waller Pruzan, about the unusual world of a 9-year-old girl.

"Elevator Plays," a bundle of one-minute plays to be staged at a non-theater site, and a collaboration between Annex and the Specific Gravity Ensemble of Louisville, Ky.

"Love's Tangled Web," the Northwest debut of a spoofy melodrama by the late Charles Ludlam.

"Emerald and the Lovesong of the Dead Fisherman,"a world premiere written and directed by Brendan Healy, about a barista searching for her fisherman father. Produced in collaboration with the new company Pony World.

Annex also plans several late-night shows. For complete information go to www.annextheatre.org.