By Chuck Graham, TucsonStage.com
photo by James Blair
Anthony (Nick Trice) and Caroline (Lucille Petty) discover more than poetry while reading Walt Whitman
The very mystery of life is at the heart of “I and You.” An intense and excellent production is running at Invisible Theatre, with Nick Trice and Lucille Petty giving compelling performances as a pair of teenagers fighting for more understanding of the unseen forces that shape their lives.
Petty plays the high school senior Caroline, grown increasingly bitter that she has been waiting for a liver transplant since infancy. Most of her life has been spent in her bedroom, literally, where the phenomenon of social media has come along to connect her to the world – or at least to give her that illusion.
For it has become the world as filtered through Facebook, and her impressions of the world reflect what she has read on those highly opinionated pages.
So it isn't a surprise her opinions have that same flinty cynicism. When vigorously good-natured Anthony (Trice) suddenly bursts into her bedroom sanctuary to start the play, she wails on him with the same over-the-top anger common to Facebook.
Caught off balance, Anthony instinctively strikes back with his own unfiltered emotions. Graceful phrasing will not be a part of this abrasive conversation.
For that, playwright Lauren Gunderson introduces Walt Whitman. Anthony announces he has been assigned by their teacher to be Caroline's partner to complete an assignment on Whitman's poetry collection “Leaves of Grass.”
The selection of Whitman is no casual choice, for the vast sweep of the poet's sensual vision matches perfectly the teen questions of what life is all about, what is their purpose here, and why must Caroline be kept in her bedroom when Anthony gets to play basketball, learn the saxophone and fall in love with jazz.
Struggling with the grandeur of Whitman's enthusiasm for America, expressed in English that is practically a foreign language to the compressed phrases of today's Twitter-speak, becomes their common enemy.
Caroline hates poetry, particularly the kind that relates to nothing in her world. Anthony, though he lives a more faceted life at school, hates the way Whitman keeps switching his use of pronouns.
Slowly their mutual dislikes become endearingly adolescent affection for each other....setting up the entry to a quick-flip surprise ending that will catch in your throat.
The acting, the timing and, yes, the choreography are executed with a sincerity and intensity rare on any Tucson stage. Trice and Petty hit these peaks so naturally, with such ease, living in the imagery like their own school clothes, they take the playwright's confrontational dialogue to a higher level of eavesdropping.
For everyone who loves true theater, “I and You” must not be missed.
The remaining performances are 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Oct. 3-4; 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 5. All tickets are $30, with discounts available. Student rush is $15, 30 minutes before show time, when available. For details and reservations, 520-882-9721, or visit www.invisibletheatre.com
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