Recall

Review by Rebecca Haithcoat

RECOMMENDED

An obsession with science fiction used to be one of the major signifiers of geekdom. Remember the 1997 documentary on Star Trek fans, Trekkies? Look no further than San Diego’s annual Comic-Con for proof of how times have changed. Even the “cool kids” have attending it on their bucket lists. Know the name Katniss? Then welcome to the club.

Sure, the dystopian world of The Hunger Games is grimier than that of Recall. But playwright Eliza Clark (a writer for AMC’s The Killing) knows that keeping surroundings familiar is scarier than setting them too far—i.e., safely—into a distant future. The play opens, in fact, in the kind of hotel room you probably stayed in during college Spring Break, the kind that makes you worry about the sheets.

Single mom Justine (a fantastically spazzy, skittish Karen Nicole) is sprawled on a couch commenting on a Biggest Loser-type show, while her 13-year-old daughter Lucy (the compelling and creepy Madeline Bertani) scrubs at a giant bloodstained carpet. Just how it got there and why they are waiting for a seemingly good-hearted stranger, David (Mark Souza), to take them to a safe house is a mystery.

Just as curious, if not more so, is government “re-programmer” Charlotte (Lara Fisher, who provides needed comic relief). New laws include pinpointing and then monitoring teens given to violent behavior in the hopes of preempting such. Once a “pre-violent subject” is “on the list,” he’s there for good, though what exactly Charlotte does is veiled in secrecy.

Clark is smart to envision a near-future, fear-based world that’s taken its cue from the chilling rash of school shootings that have occurred over the past decade or so—even if Quinn, the loner who befriends Lucy, is a little predictable in his black trench coat and military boots. The current-topicality of it engages. And aided by Dan Spurgeon’s swift direction, she knows how to draw out suspense.

But that’s her Achilles heel here. Only the true nerds among us might be able to tie up all the sci-fi loose ends. Yet anybody with a heart (we’re not robots—so far) should be able to make sense of the play’s human relationships. Unfortunately, Clark stops short of allowing us that satisfaction. –Rebecca Haithcoat

The Visceral Company at the Lex Theatre, 6760 Lexington Ave., Hlywd.; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m.; through May 4. www.thevisceralcompany.com.