INDY'S WEEKLY ALTERNATIVE NEWSPAPER HIGHLIGHTING ARTS, ENTERTAINMENT AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
Theater in the dome
Heartland Actors Repertory Theatre
Directed by Michael Shelton
Indianapolis Artsgarden
Through April 13
Last weekend marked the world premiere of Midwestern Hemisphere: a suburban metaphysical comedy by Lou Harry (of the Indianapolis Business Journal, and also a prolific author) and Eric Pfeffinger (his plays The Jockey Short and Scrooge Variations were produced locally by Rough Magic). It also marked the first time the Indianapolis Artsgarden has been used to stage a full-scale theatrical production.
The location worked, as mall traffic was diverted around the walled-off stage and seating area. The glass fish bowl-like structure also helped set the scene for the play’s action. The glass enclosure and the Simpsons Movie T-shirt of narrator-character Harrison (Sam Fain) foreshadow (Harrison likes foreshadowing) the coming crisis plot point: A subdivision, Trojan Hills, in Fort Wayne accidentally gets stuck inside an impermeable dome and its residents have to stave off boredom during their entrapment.
Six characters represent six different households: Sam Fain as Harrison is the geeky but brilliant constructor of the dome; Robert Neal plays Jerry, a man so disenchanted with his wife and obsessed by women’s wrists he will feign needing a divorce to meet a hot female lawyer; Kelsie Coughlin is the sexually curious teenager Miranda; Claire Wilcher is wheelchair-bound Rebekka, who wants to make Dome News; Frank Shelton is a little kid; and Megan McKinney is Sue, a woman with a career, but no friends, and a one-night stand, known to her only as Tie Guy, stuck on her couch.
Midwestern Hemisphere comes across as a deviant knock-off of Our Town, which, oh the irony, Rebekka stages a knock-off of in order to garner more dome coverage.
The cast is better than the script. After about 30 minutes, the passé trendiness becomes a bore (such as pointing out that Ghost and Buffy the Vampire Slayer shared an actor, not to mention referencing Monica Lewinsky). The play has dated itself into having no shelf life, and already feels tired. Plus, it is painfully drawn out, feeling even longer than its already long two-and-a-half-hour running time.
But the cast, under director Michael Shelton, pulls entertaining performances. Funny is the key here, as none of the characters are written with depth. Standouts are the fame-obsessed Wilcher, errant husband Neal and socially obtuse McKinney. Most of the time, the characters don’t directly interact with each other. Monologues are big here — a hard form to pull off and maintain audience interest (another script weakness).
Midwestern Hemisphere runs through April 13 at the Indianapolis Artsgarden at Circle Centre Mall. Tickets are $18. Call 317-796-2222, www.heartlandactors.org.