Review: Banal Conversation with No Plot in ReAct's THE ALIENS

I'm seriously starting to believe that Annie Baker thinks she gets paid for her plays based on how long they are. Furthermore she finds the banal conversations of random people fascinating. She must as once again we have a play from Ms. Baker, this time from ReAct Theatre with "The Aliens", with little to no story and jam packed with lengthy pauses.

In "The Aliens" we meet Jasper and KJ (Curtis Gehlhausen and Cooper Harris-Turner), two college drop outs who spend much of their time hanging out behind a local coffee shop. One day new coffee shop employee Evan (Alan E. Garcia) comes out back to empty the trash to find these two there. He tells them they're not allowed to be there but they don't listen and eventually Evan finds himself in a friendship with them where they ... chat.

No really, that's it. The three of them smoke, have conversations about nothing filled with lengthy awkward silences and generally loiter. There's no plot, no underlying message, no conflict to overcome and no emotional arc for any of them. In fact the only kind of emotion they have in the piece is when something bad happens to one of them, the other two feel sad. Other than that not much happens except life and well (spoiler alert) death. A death I might add with circumstances so contrived and out of left field that it felt like an afterthought by the author.

I have to say, I've seen Ms. Baker's other two big hits, "The Flick" and "Circle Mirror Transformation" and now with this one I've concluded, I am not a fan. I realize I'm in the minority here as she keeps getting raves from critics and even a Pulitzer for "The Flick". Call me crazy but I prefer my theater to have an actual story and engaging characters and dialog and not an experiment in eaves dropping on people with little drive or ambition.

As for this production the performances felt one-note, two dimensional and overly stylized and the direction from David Hsieh lacked a decent pace. But I don't know how much I can put that on the actors and director as Ms. Baker writes in those awkward silences into her shows. So really they were just following the script.

Awkward silences can be a very powerful tool in theater. They can convey desperation, longing, humor, disgust, and any number of other emotions but only when they're used sparingly. When they're liberally scattered throughout the play for no reason then they're not emotional, they're just dead air. And "The Aliens" has enough awkward silences to fill up an entire other play. But then maybe that's her next play, "All Pauses, All the Time." But this style is not for me and so I give ReAct's "The Aliens" an irritated NAH with my three letter rating system. Maybe I'm missing something here but I don't think so as I had plenty of time during the dialog to think about the meaning of the play ... and my grocery list ... and my plans for the weekend.

"The Aliens" from ReAct performs at West of Lenin through July 24th. For tickets or information visit them online at www.reacttheatre.org.

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