The Superhero and His Charming Wife

Reviewed by Terry Morgan
Not Man Apart/Highways Performance Space
Through May 15

RECOMMENDED

Schrödinger’s cat has been in the local theatrical zeitgeist of late. It was used to symbolize the interlocked statuses of life and death in Dirt (which just closed at the Raven Playhouse) and is even more central in Aaron Hendry’s The Superhero and His Charming Wife, a production by the Not Man Apart theater group. Uncertainty is the play’s keynote, where realizing one’s dream is perilously close to having it dashed. This show, presented at the Highways Performance Space, is imaginatively directed, a funny and thoughtful leap into a dream that is also a nightmare.

Hero (Jones Welsh), a superhero, lives with his wife Julie (Joanna Bateman). One day, after an argument, Julie walks into the other room and comes back as a different person, Julie the Changed (Laura Covelli). Understandably, this startles Hero, but she manages to assure him that he’ll get used to it. He’s busy with his day job, looking for criminal masterminds. Meanwhile, Julie’s past personas are coming after her, causing her to morph into Julie the Hunted (Courtney Munch). What Hero doesn’t realize is that the mystery of his past is pursuing him as well.

Welsh plays Hero as a stentorian icon, a well-meaning guy whose rigid viewpoint resists change. He’s amusing and sympathetic in a role that also requires a great deal of physical agility. Bateman is suitably mercurial and mysterious as the original and final Julie, the initial bit of chaos that upsets Hero’s order. Covelli excels as the kindest and most reasonable of the Julies, while Munch brings a raw intensity and vitality to her character. Zachary Reeve Davidson as the Waiter, a man who wants to be a superhero himself, offers a sunny contrast to Hero’s moral confusion.

As a director, Hendry gets striking, offbeat work from his actors, and his visual style is superb. A couple of set pieces are particularly stunning: a rooftop race with a lithe actress leaping from block to block (each separate piece held up by the cast), or a black tarp used to cover the stage, the cast kicking and rising beneath it, evoking a stormy sea under aquatic blue lights. Michelle Broussard’s choreography (collaborated upon with the cast) is lively and surprising, especially during a fight where Hero throws a villain over his head, leading to that villain running sideways across a wall.

Hendry’s writing is smart and unusual, taking unexpected left turns, from a Demon (Paul Turbiak, dryly witty), who explains the underlying themes of the piece to a scene in a restaurant, where an employee yells back at the manager in fake Japanese. His show also has a Lynchian aspect, meaning previously friendly characters turn suddenly dark and enigmatic, giving the play an enjoyable dichotomy of tone. Some elements of the plot are obscure, however, such as the cause of Julie’s changes, which is a bit frustrating.

Overall, Superhero is a wild, thought-provoking ride, perhaps best summed up by this exchange in the play: HERO: Am I dreaming? JULIE: Always.

Highways Performance Space, 1651 18^th St., Santa Monica; Fri.-Sat. 8:30 p.m., Sun. 3:30 p.m. (May 8 & 15 only); through May 15. www.notmanapart.com. Running time: 2 hours with a 15 minute intermission.