What Happened When 

Reviewed by Terry Morgan 
Echo Theater Company 
Through April 26  

RECOMMENDED 

There are generally two types of ghost stories: those with haunted characters, and those in which it is the audience that becomes haunted — that is, where the tale lingers after the show like an unquiet memory. Daniel Talbott’s What Happened When, presented in the form of a family drama that unspools over many years, exemplifies both of these types. The Echo Theater Company’s production, under Chris Fields’ assured direction, is tight and powerful.

In 2009, three siblings huddle together one evening, talking about the “normal” lives they likely will never have. Over the next six years they struggle to overcome their difficulties. The eldest, Will (Chris Stack), although very protective of his brother and sister, will become a blackout drunk that compulsively sleeps with almost every woman he meets. Sam (Ellen Neary), desperate to protect her little brother Jimi (Randall Clute), tries to be responsible and gets a job. Jimi, however, just gets sadder and sadder, withdrawing from a world that keeps hurting him and his family.

Fields gets strong work from his actors. Stack is superb as Will, who is racked with guilt but unable to stop messing up his life. Stack’s bold performance is filled with complex contradictions that imbue Will with a tragic quality not dissimilar to Jamie in Long Day’s Journey into Night. Neary is very good as the worried Sam, who watches both of her brothers fall apart (my only complaint is that I wish she had more stage time). Finally, Clute is memorably fine as Jimi, a troubled person who apologetically implodes as his siblings look on helplessly. He has minimal dialogue during most of the play, but he makes up for it in the final scene, in which all of his pain and sorrow are released in a heartbreaking torrent.

Amanda Knehans’ simple bedroom set and Rose Malone’s moody lighting help to create the proper atmosphere. Talbott pulls off an impressive feat by packing an hour long show with an almost ridiculous number of awful things besetting his characters (I’d list them except I don’t want to spoil anything), yet still managing to make the story genuinely affecting. His dialogue is realistic and sharp, particularly in one exchange where Jimi asks, concerning their father, “Do you think he loved us?” and Will responds curtly, “Does it matter?”

What Happened When isn’t light entertainment, to put it mildly. It’s the theatrical equivalent of a triple espresso shot — drama distilled down to a thing of dark potency. It’s not for everybody, but for those willing to take the ride, it’s a moving, indelible experience.

Note: Echo Theatre Company will be remounting this show twice later this year, with two different casts, from July 25 to August 23, and then from September 26 to October 18.

Atwater Village Theatre, 3269 Casitas Ave., Los Angeles; Tues.-Thurs., 8 p.m.; through April 26. www.EchoTheaterCompany.com. Running time: approximately 1 hour and 10 minutes with no intermission.