In Case of Emergency

Reviewed by Paul Birchall
Chalk Rep, at an Undisclosed Residence
Through July 3

It’s easy to love site specific theater —particularly one in which the setting essentially adds a character to the show itself. I’m thinking of recent shows like Flagship Theater’s Second Skin, which was a ghost story staged on the beach outside the Annenberg Beach House, with ghostly figures emerging from the cascading surf — or perhaps the Wilderness Company’s incredible promenade staging in a downtown warehouse of the surreal The Day Shall Declare It. Sometimes, however, a play staged in an unusual location turns out to be rather less than meets the eye — and that, I’m sorry to say, is the case with playwright Ruth McKee’s mildly amusing comedy, set in a suburban L.A. garage and staged in one as well.

The production has moved amongst several suburban homes during the course of its run; on the night I attended, the show was presented in the backyard garage in a pretty little stucco-covered house in Pasadena. As you arrive, your seats are placed in front of the closed garage doors. Then, after the typical preshow comments, the producer presses the button on his remote control wand, and the garage doors rise, revealing a hoarder’s hell of boxes and crates, stuffed with junk. 

Meredith (Amy Ellenberger), a woman afflicted with neuroses, phobias and panic attacks, has cluttered her home with objects that she thinks she might need in the event of a natural disaster or apocalypse. She also hires a gentle and pleasant-natured disaster prep-expert, Alex (Daniel Rubiano), to stop by to give his professional advice on how to keep the collection up to date. Meredith’s younger sister, Emma (Emma Zakes Green) thinks Meredith is ridiculous, but as she’s a recovering drug addict and is under her sister’s guardianship, she can only go so far with her criticism. Emma also dreams of moving to Bangladesh with her erstwhile boyfriend — and she needs the cash from an inheritance that Meredith holds in trust to do it.  Meredith and Emma squabble — but then a real life threat causes the up-till-then genial Alex to unravel. 

Chalk Repertory has a strong reputation for staging amazing shows; for instance, their production of Lady Windemere’s Fan was set in the Clark Library, a genius idea, and their Flash Theater events took the notion of social media flash mobs and elevated them to a theatrical level. But McKee’s play is strangely dramatically inert, afflicted by awkwardly limned conflicts between shrill and rather unappealing characters, who are represented by their flaws instead of more charismatic elements.  Director Deena Selenow’s calculatedly claustrophobic mood is atmospherically rendered: You feel like you’re surrounded by trash and junk and not in a good way. Aside from the seediness inherent in watching a play set in a garage that really is a garage, it’s not really clear what the site specific elements bring to the production. For one thing, the acoustics muffle many of the interactions, and the use of mostly garage lights (there is also a stand of theatrical lights illuminating stage left) make us wish the show were being performed on a conventional stage. 

Performances are adequate, and bring energy to McKee’s clumsy collection of easily resolved phobias and quirks — but they’re missing the intimacy one suspects is the point of immersive staging. Ellenberger brings a suitably wide-eyed hysterical quality to her turn as the older sister;  Green’s passive aggressive younger sister, with her increasingly poorly repressed rage, is intriguing, but her character’s shrillness becomes off-putting.  

Chalk Rep, performing at a private home in Pasadena; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m., Sun., 7 p.m., through July 3.  https://chalkrep.com.  Running time: 90 minutes without an intermission.