Review: 'Arcana,' at Open Circle Theater, explores what lies in the cards

Most of us who have turned, either as a lark or in earnest, to the 22 cards of the Tarot deck's Major Arcana for occasional divination, have sought symbolic interpretations of worldly experiences in love, loss and more.

"Arcana," an inspired cluster of vignettes by Seattle playwright John Longenbaugh, playfully improvises on the figurative meaning of several Tarot cards while comically and poetically exploring our impulse to link experience with myth.

The result is a vibrant, sometimes bracingly satirical, often deeply moving production of grace and imagination. With Longenbaugh's narrative and tonal variety, the malleability of an exciting ensemble of actors and the unique approaches to eight short pieces by five directors, the two-hour program feels constantly fresh.

On a two-tiered set (by Eric Gordon and Ron Sandahl) topped by a card-shaped portal, the audience is gently introduced to "Arcana's" concept with the one-woman "Byzantium," directed by Nikki Visel. Taking its cue from the Tarot deck's Empress, the story finds an attractive single (a very funny April Davidson) on a garden- variety quest for romance complicated by the mind-blowing loftiness of her job.

Longenbaugh directs the bolder "Picnic" (warning: contains nudity), which clouds the uncomplicated happiness of the Tarot's Sun while ingeniously drawing on Manet's once-scandalous, visually unsettling 1863 painting "Le déjeuner sur l'herbe" ("The Lunch on the Grass") in look and theme. Manet's familiar, alfresco free spirits (witty and subtle work by Katherine Grant-Suttie, Sarah Rose Nottingham, Brandon Ryan and Anthony Duckett) are trapped in their sensual paradise, spooked by fleeting shadows and thoughts of another life of portent and urgency.

"Arcana" ends with two very strong pieces: "Wild River" (directed by Mary Cutler), an unexpectedly stirring comedy about a revolutionary female pope (an excellent Erin Ison), and the exquisite "Stardust" (Rob West), juxtaposing two universal rites of passage where the ocean meets the shore.

Tom Keogh: tomwkeogh@yahoo.com