Review: FIRES, OHIO at Alliance Theatre

On the Hertz Stage at Alliance Theatre, FIRES, OHIO by Beth Hyland and directed by Marissa Wolf is the well-deserved winner of the 22nd Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Competition. The play’s contemporary riff on Uncle Vanya takes on the American justice myth asking what might happen if the world ignored the young profits publishing end-of-the world environmentalists while families disconnect from one another, praying to capital-T-tehcnology instead of God or love or appreciation for the wonders of wealth. In Hyland's story, the infinite existential dilemmas of humanity are reflected by the same conundrums of one advantaged family. Nature's Grand Canyon parallels the cracks in the industrial pavements. FIRES, OHIO balances Vanya's melancholy and humor with the comfort of our favorite car-ride podcast and the satisfaction of apocalyptic porn. If it's too late to fix what we've done, where are we headed, and will there be non-dairy lattes?

The ensemble appears as deeply connected, symbiotic, and codependent as any Chekhovian open hearth. The gift of each interaction leaves the audience with proverbial soot and smoke still in their clothes on the way home. Rebeca Robles's subservient Sonia anchors the story as well as the home with an undercurrent of smoldering excitement shining with equal parts love and energy for her character and her craft. What you might otherwise see coming, is expertly nuanced and actualized. Chisom Awachie excites with a clarity and kindness to a humorous situation, hidden behind well-worn heartbreak and fear. Tiffany Denise Hobbs commands a new and revelatory Elena, with a layered coolness formed by a compassionately warm regret.  Billy Harrigan Tighe’s John expertly hones a dry wit that holds humanity's truths and comedy within the familial rationalizations and absurd philosophies. David de Vries’s Professor gives more weight to a typical comedic self-importance. His pomp is as familiar as his archetype, yet his skill evokes an empathy for the lost Everyman, an almost impossible feat for an object of such cringworthy privilege.

Set and Costumes by Lex Liang, Lighting by Robert J. Aguilar, Sound by Madeleline Oldham, Fight Choreography by Jake Guinn, and Intimacy Coordination by Laura Hackman creates a sleak, beautiful efforlessness while upholding a complicated domesticity. The design is a true service to the story, allowing the senses to understand the precise dynamics of how the environment might sooth the ungrateful into the fire.

It's exciting to see new plays question new dilemnas while echoing dusty relationships and age-old human-made obstacles. FIRES, OHIO reflects humans then and now, only Hyland's story gives a humours and heartbreaking urgency to hurry up and burn it all down so we can rebuild already.