BWW Reviews: Factory 449's CLOSET LAND Offers Up Challenging – But Worthy – Theatrical Experience

One of the great things about the Washington, DC theatre scene is the varied nature of the shows that are produced. You can catch the latest national tour of a blockbuster musical at the Kennedy Center or the National Theatre or check out a world premiere or revisit a classic at one of the country's nationally-recognized regional theatres like Signature Theatre, Arena Stage, or Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. Or, if you are so inclined, you can also tread slightly off the beaten path, both theatrically and geographically. One might, for instance, check out the emerging arts scene in Anacostia where several of our area's smaller companies are producing great work at two new venues. Among them is the Helen Hayes Award-winning theatre collective Factory 449, which makes its home at the Anacostia Arts Center's extremely intimate black box theatre space.

Factory 449's Washington, DC premiere of Radha Bharadwaj's Closet Land is, in many ways, the kind of theatre that truly excites me. It's a provocative play that dares to ask socially relevant and challenging questions, but also - at the same time - offers the opportunity for a visceral theatrical experience that won't soon be forgotten, especially in such an intimate black box. Producing Artistic Director Rick Hammerly, company members Sara Barker and David Lamont Wilson, and a talented design team do a commendable job to bring the best elements of Bharadwaj's play to the forefront, and offer up a largely engaging evening at the theatre.

Upon entering the black box space, we're immediately struck by its almost claustrophobic feel. Two rows of audience seating are located on all four sides of the theatre with nary a physical barrier or space between the actors and the patrons. A Woman (Sara Barker) is sitting bound and blindfolded on a metal chair. The lighting is dim. It's easy to see her struggle. A Man (David Lamont Wilson) enters from one of the panels behind the audience, ready to begin her interrogation. The pieces come together - at least a little bit.

We're in an unnamed country at an indeterminate time. The Man is an agent of the state - a totalitarian regime that has little regard for human rights. Freedom of expression is but a dream. The Woman is a children's literature author that's written a number of cute little stories about animals. She's being questioned about a yet-to-be-published manuscript entitled Closet Land, also geared toward children. It's revealed that there's concern that the simple story about a child that's been forced to go to a closet and finds friends in the clothes that fill it, may be more than just a sad story of loneliness and making the best of a sad situation. The thought, according to the Man, is that the Woman's story is not so simple. He, speaking on behalf of the state, is concerned it contains an underlying political message. The closet, for example, is a space where those opposing the regime might meet and plan insurgent activities against it with the ultimate goal of overthrowing the government. In essence, the state is concerned that her story supports, and perhaps even encourages, the use of underground political movements to instigate regime change and instills that kind of thinking in impressionable children - the next generation of those that might enact political change.

Without spilling too many of the details - for they need to be experienced in person - the audience serves as intimate witnesses to all of the attempts by the Man to get the Woman to confess to wrongdoing against the government. Physical torture? Sure, there's some of that. However, just as scary - perhaps even more so - are the savvy ways in which the agent - who clearly knows enough about his prisoner preys on her emotions, past experiences, and general sense of self - tries to achieve the desired response. The question remains of how/if the Woman can keep from caving and maintain full control of her thoughts. Is resistance an option? How can she resist and what's the best way to do it? As the Man tries to elicit a confession, the Woman begins to internalize experiences from her past - and even recent present - which she previously chose to suppress or ignore. Instead of narrowing her viewpoint, the prison experience has the opposite effect.

Worthy questions and topics aside, there are certainly elements of Bharadwaj's play that are fairly predictable and some that mirror other artistic works - among them 1984. If anything, I wanted more intensity and freshness in terms of the images, ideas, and actual experiences that Bharadwaj conjures up in her script. That being said, I am fully confident others may feel differently on this. To be clear, I happen to be a political nerd that has read so much about real world past and present totalitarian regimes and related human rights issues to the point that I recognize that I am a bit desensitized to many of the experiences, techniques, and ideas presented in her play.

This is not to suggest, however, that the Factory 449 production is lacking in intensity. It's not. What intensity does exist is undoubtedly a result of Hammerly's exceptional staging and the fine acting on the part of both Barker and Wilson. Barker - who is, by the way a trooper - and Wilson make a solid effort to explore, and bring into focus, the play's challenging themes without overplaying the roles to the point where we see the Man and Woman as anything other than humans like ourselves, engaged in a situation that could be replicated anywhere. The uncomfortable chemistry between the two cannot be overlooked. The intimate venue also allows us to experience the Woman's life-altering experience in a quite realistic way. Greg Stevens set design - particularly the panels behind the audience that make the space even smaller and are part of the action - Dan Covey's lighting design and Thomas Sowers' sound design are enormously effective in creating an environment that's trapping, uncertain, and downright eerie.

For these reasons, I simply can't dismiss this production. We should also not forget that fundamentally, Hammerly and company take on a work that few other theatres in our area would be likely to touch. The fact that a small theatre company would take such a programming risk - especially in an area of DC that is need of art - deserves unquestionable kudos.

Running Time: 75 minutes with no intermission.

CLOSET LAND plays at the Anacostia Arts Center - 1231 Good Hope Road, SE - through May 10. Tickets can be purchased online. For further information, see the Anacostia Arts Center and Factory 449 websites.

Photo: Teresa Wood.

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