Review: KEVIN KLING: UNRAVELED; a Master Storyteller at the Peak of his Powers

There are some shows where you sit down, the lights go out, you watch it, you’re amused/moved/whatever, the lights go back up, and you move on.

And then there are times when you’re sitting in the dark, gob-smacked, and you ask yourself, “Where the hell has this artist been all my life?”

Such is the humble, powerful presence of master storyteller Kevin Kling, whose “Unraveled” is one of the highest of highlights at this year’s Contemporary American Theater Festival.  A national treasure by way of Minneapolis—and yes, dear reader, he’s just as nice as you think he might be—Kling gives us a series of vignettes drawn from his storied life, filled with setbacks from the git-go, but a life so well lived. 

Accompanied by musician and scene partner Robertson “Rob” Witmer—who performs everything from accordion to tin whistle to xylophone, fez optional—Kling gives us a grand tour beginning with a childhood that had more than its share of challenges, with many an adventure tossed in. 

Some of his adventures were ones he actually agreed to beforehand.  Others –like the time he got hit by lightning—seemed more a matter of destiny than anything else.  But the highs and lows here are made vivid, and even as he ranges from the Ancient Greeks to Rumi to Medieval England to Eastern Europe during the Cold War, he doesn’t miss a beat, and keeps you on the edge of your seat.

One of my favorite moments from “Unraveled” comes with his account of his trip, as a visiting artist, to the Czech capital of Prague.  Because the city was then in Communist hands, his tales of who he met and what he did there will give audiences a new perspective on the challenges of making art, honest art, under dishonest regimes.  And, more importantly, how artists always find a way around the censors.  Kling also reminds us that sometimes it wasn’t the Communists who wanted to shut you up.  (He went there in 1987; you do the math).

David M. Barber has created a masterful set, complete with niches high and low, packed with images and statues inspired by different nodes in the matrix of Kling’s stories—with a literal, Renaissance-style matrix drawn on the upstage wall to boot.  As each vignette arrives, Harold F. Burgess II’s lights bring each niche into sharp focus.  And Peggy McKowen’s low-key costuming keeps us focused on the human being in front of us.

Kling wraps up the show with a tribute to one of the great musical artists of the Cold War, one whose songs inspired millions of young people trapped behind the so-called Iron Curtain.  An entire generation, growing up under Soviet (Russian) controlled Communist dictatorships, found their freedom through the songs of artists like David Bowie.  And you might find yourself joining in on the chorus from one of Bowie’s most famous songs—an anthem, truly—which echoes in moving ways the struggles Kling himself has faced and overcome.

“Unraveled” is about as life-affirming as it gets, and coming as it does from someone who bears his challenges with such grace and disarming honesty, perhaps one of the enduring themes of this performance is one of gratitude.

Production Photo:  Kevin Kling.  Photo by Seth Freeman.

The 2025 Contemporary American Theater Festival will run from July 11 through August 3, on the campus of Shepherd University in nearby Shepherdstown, West Virginia.