Space

Reviewed by Julio Martinez
Stella Adler Mainstage
Through August 20

RECOMMENDED

Space, the play, has a first act that’s too long (one hour and 25 minutes) and a second act that’s lovely and concise (40 minutes).  This is due to our protagonist (Stefan Marks) being crazy during the first act and thus having a license to do anything he wants. This ranges from stand-up (he narrates practically the whole thing) to singing and dancing (shaky fare on the dancing but his singing voice is passable) — all while arranging the action in whatever order he wants to get his narrative across. After all, he is telling the story of what it’s like to finally be out on his own after spending 30 years in a mental institution. He was only 19 when he went in.    

Now the second act is different. He is sane, and his sanity won’t permit him to indulge in some bit of foolishness, like doing a song and dance routine with his hospital “facilitator,” Ann (Samantha Smart). So he gets right to the story of his monumentally dysfunctional Mom (Rachel Parker) and Dad (Michael Mathys), and why he spent thirty years in a mental hospital. e wraps it up quite nicely.     

Of course, the first act is meant to display the craftsmanship of the playwright, Stefan Marks (yes, the same man who is playing crazy Kurt). He creates a character that is forever trying to organize his life into a screenplay. He even throws in an Academy Award-winning speech, which is one of the highlights of the play. His dad disappears from his life in a hot air balloon (like the Wizard of Oz), leaving his mother to live out the rest of her like in a state of perpetual antagonism towards her son. And he courts the sweet and lovely Ann (whom he quickly learns is almost non-functional without her smart phone) in an effort to make her into a 1940s version of his own true love.   

Marks even makes sure we get the significance of the hot air balloon. There are remnants of it all over the set (designed by Marks), which provides Mom with the added business of folding it up as if it is part of her daily tasks. There are pieces of it ever present.  As he marches through the first act, Marks is constantly ripping away sections of it to get to a door, or even to sit down.  

All the stuff that Stefan Marks throws in works because the cast makes it work, which means kudos go to the director, Stefan Marks. Rachel Parker, Samantha Smart and Michael Matthys nicely inhabit their characters.  And whoever is responsible for the richly-chorded rendition on acoustic guitar of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” which opens the show, deserves an award.      

Stella Adler Theatre Main Stage, 6773 Hollywood Blvd, 2^nd Floor, Hollywood; Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; through August 20; (747) 777-2878 or https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2565920 or www.spacetheplay. Running time: 1 hour and fifteen minutes with one intermission.