Review: LOST BOY IN WHOLE FOODS Offers Thought-Provoking Drama

Portland Stage's latest production of Tammy Ryan's 2009 play, Lost Boy in Whole Foods, offers a thought-provoking encounter with several extremely topical issues, among them the impact of immigration, the obligation to refugees, the clash of cultures, and the meaning and motives for good deeds. Mounted with the company's customary excellent production values and cast from strength, Ryan's play delivers a number of stirring theatrical moments.

As a dramatist, Ryan tackles ambitious themes with earnestness and openness and manages to weave together the contrasting lives of her characters with tension and discovery. The second act is better crafted than the first, moving from the somewhat improbable and underprepared decision of a Pittsburgh divorcee to "adopt" a Sudanese young man on a compassionate impulse to probing the emotional depths of this decision for everyone involved. Ryan's best drawn portraits are her three African characters, Gabriel, Panther, and the charming, feisty aid worker,Segel Mohammed, to whom she accords the most moving scenes and poignant dialogue. If the play has a flaw, it is in the somewhat one-dimensional portrayals of Christine and her daughter Alex, who seem representative of a set of cultural concepts and values more than individuals facing very real crises of conscience.

Markus Potter directs tautly and sensitively, managing the transitions from reality to imagination and those which cross global expanses with a fluid ease. Anita Stewart provides the stunning scenery which visually captures the cultural contrasts and conjunctions. An upscale modern kitchen against a background of elegant, sculptural water buffalo horns transforms itself by means of projections into Whole Foods, the African bush, and the final visionary apotheosis. Cory Pattak's lighting contributes effectively to the transitions, while Mark Van Hare's sound design shifts between the two cultures, bringing the haunting songs and sounds of Africa vividly to life with increasing intensity as Gabriel's story plays itself out. Kathleen P.Brown's costumes and Eric Anderson's special effects add measurably to the equation.

Tyrone Davis Jr. creates an empathetic Gabriel, haunted by his memories, struggling to make a success of his new American life, and tormented by the essential dichotomy of his situation. Davis infuses his character with humor, ingenuousness, inner anguish, and dignity in a performance that rises to the noble transcendence of its final moments. Jamil A.C. Mangan is a chilling Panther, unsettling in his pent-up violent anger and cynicism at the same time that he is, beneath the surface, a vulnerable lost boy as well. Chantal Jean-Pierre gives a sparkling performance as Segel Mohammed, mercurial, manipulative, wise, and compassionate. J.P. Guimont contributes two touching scenes as the jaded, but not defeated social worker, and Casey Turner makes the most of the role of the teenage Alex, letting the audience share her emotional growth. As Christine, Mhari Sandoval gives as credible a performance as her material allows her.

Lost Boy in Whole Foods demonstrates Portland's Stage's commitment to its mission of engaging audiences with challenging issues and focusing a positive spotlight on cultural and philosophical diversity.

Photos Courtesy of Portland Stage, Aaron Flacke, photographer

Lost Boy in Whole Foods runs from March 1-March 20, 20167, at Portland Stage, 25 Forest Ave., Portland, ME 207-774-0465 www.portlandstage.org