Review: RACECAR RACECAR RACECAR at Artists Rep

In Kallan Dana’s RACECAR RACECAR RACECAR, now running at Artists Repertory Theatre, a father (Anthony Green Caloca) and his adult daughter (Jerilyn Armstrong) head off on a cross-country drive from New York to California to clean out a storage unit. To pass the time, and possibly to avoid talking about anything real, they invent palindromes – words and phrases that read the same forward and backward (see the play's title). It’s clearly something they’ve done together all their lives, suggesting that avoidance is a skill they’ve both been honing.

The palindrome also describes the structure of the play – this road trip retraces in reverse a journey they took when she was a child. But, as we all know from experience, in the rearview mirror, everything shifts and distorts. Dana's tight script is an impressive exercise in verbal gymnastics, with words and meanings constantly somersaulting and folding back on themselves. 

What begins as an adventure inevitably starts to unravel. Dad and Daughter’s carefully maintained facades crumble. How do they both have time for this road trip? Why so little luggage? The circumstances around the parents’ divorce loom uncomfortably. So do the two other sisters. What are this family’s secrets? 

This is a highly surrealist play where reality doesn't just take a backseat. It's left on the side of the road. The trip unfolds through a fog of imperfect memory, fantasy, possibly hallucination. Daughter feels like the only real person. Dad is overly cheerful, but has a dead look in his eyes. They encounter a host of very strange strangers – an aggressive man at a rest stop, a woman who seems to know far too much about them, two hitchhikers who may or may not be what they seem, an unusually flirty Wendy’s employee (John San Nicolas, R.L. Routh, and Sandra Lee play these multiple characters). The play is surprisingly funny, given the sinister undertones.

The production, directed by Melory Mirashrafi, cranks the creepy dial to 11 from the start. The states they travel through are announced via slides projected by someone in a red balaclava. Samantha Kemp's lighting design evokes horror films. There's a lot of inexplicable headwear. Is this all a fever dream? Drug-induced psychosis?

RACECAR RACECAR RACECAR is intentionally disorienting. Be willing to surrender to the strangeness. Don’t forget to buckle up!

RACECAR RACECAR RACECAR runs through March 1. Details and tickets here.