Review: THE URMETAZOAN at Barrington Stage Company

THE URMETAZOAN now enjoying its North American debut on the St. Germain Stage is another in Barrington Stage Company’s New Works Series.  Written by Alex Rugman, the piece is also currently having its World Premiere run at the Hampstead Theatre in London. 

Set in a modest rental unit in Florida, Abigail (Francesca Carpanini) is helping Alice (Julia Chan) pack: the Nobel Prize winner and decorated scientist is leaving Earth to further space research. The two sisters haven’t spoken in seven years. Carpanini and Chan deliver a tender representation of sisterhood, slowly pulling back the layers to reveal a quiet reflection on resentment and inadequacy.  The chemistry between them is good and works well.

Jack Serio directs a well-paced 90-minute (without intermission) production that tends to humor as much as it cherishes the emotional side.   Its title, THE URMETAZOAN is derived from German Ur- (original) + the hypothetical last common ancestor of all animals (metazoans).

Playwright, Alex Rugman says “ultimately, this is a play that tries to reckon with the unbearable fact that the people we love have lives that don’t belong to us.  But the theatre is a space where those different lives can become one and recognize something about what it is to be alive, together.

As you might imagine, siblings coming together after a long period to say their final goodbye in light of the one’s upcoming one-way trip, have plenty to review and discuss.  As they do, we, the audience are proverbial flies on the wall.  Along the way, we meet Will (Justin Mark), Alice’s younger ex, whose arrival adds little to the story.  The same might be said for the characters of Young Abigail (Beatrix Flynn -Powell) and Young Alice (Lyla Randall) who open the performance with a brief prologue appearance that helps to set the tone at the opening and again at the close of the presentation.

The Creative Team for THE URMETAZOAN includes Scenic Designer Marsha Ginsberg, Costume Designer Ricky Reynoso, Lighting Designer Stacey Derosier, Sound Designer Lee Kinney, Production Stage Manager Jakob W. Plummer, and Assistant Stage Manager Rebecca L. Johnston.  The combined efforts of sound and lighting during test firings of the rocket engines is rather well done.  So too, is Ginsberg's multipurpose set design that transforms from the modest temporary lodgings in most of the production to an impactful quarantine unit during the final scene.

There are a number of threads woven throughout THE URMETAZOAN including family dynamics, climate change, Interplanetary colonialism, some aspects are more successful than others.  Accordingly, the play provides a lot of food for thought.   The aspect that seems to come through most strongly in the final analysis seems to be an inability for the two sisters to connect meaningfully and their portrayal of the tragedy of not knowing someone anymore.

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