Autobahn
Celebrating a new space with a bold new collaboration, UDM Theatre Company ushers in the Michigan premiere of Neil LaBute’s Autobahn with a space-age concept. Jointly directed by David L. Regal and Andrew Huff, this automotive production captures the unique tension of the isolated driver-passenger conversation with disquieting humor and an intriguing visual palette.
The theatre’s move to a cavernous room within the University of Detroit Mercy’s architecture building marks a joint venture of the company and the departments of architecture and digital media studies, and it shows in striking surroundings. Physical representations of three different front seats are credited to Melinda Pacha; as lit by Mark Choinski, the tableaux floating pristinely in negative space are as Spartan and judicious as modern art installations. Digital media director Claudia Bernasconi oversees the work of more than a dozen designers, who give new meaning to the concept of rear projection by presenting ambient literal and figurative imagery in the space behind the travelers. Although there may be a brief acclimation period during which the viewer learns to pay attention to the scene before the changing landscape, the visuals’ persistent meandering monotony evokes the very kind of endless road weariness that drives the play’s premise: when people have been sitting in a car as long as this, the only thing left to do is have it out.
Huff is credited with directing three of the five short plays, including two rattling pieces of one-sided silence filling that open and close the production. En route home from a long stay at a facility, Charky Mushatt’s young daughter is tenderly uncaring and sweetly nervous as she throws new patterns and rules onto her encroaching old life. Elsewhere, Crystal Reign Brock is a font of affirmation as she insistently rehashes a recent foster parenting decision. Yet the funniest and finest work of the production finds Michelle Renaud and Chris Jakob parked at some Inspiration Point or other, he a grad student who acts like a dating newbie, she a townie whose sensual appeal is matched by adorably daffy annoyances. Whether in stilted conversation or excruciating face-mauling, the actors keep topping themselves in horrible, hilarious awkwardness as they inexpertly navigate a romance of opposites.
The plays attributed to Regal’s direction are both notable for their witty treatment of subject matter that descends ever so gently into weirdness. Partners Karen Minard and Brak Little have a riotous exchange that begins with semantics and ends by exposing much more dangerous equivocation; the actors form a great duo, letting tangential asides tell the true story of their relationship. A cross-country trek initially falters because of Autumn Thiellesen’s indefinite age coupled with the intentional obscurity of the details driver Joel Frazee provides. The perturbing exchange gathers steam as questions are raised and unanswered, but ultimately loses its intrigue by showing its hand in an on-the-nose reveal.
The scenes share a charming in-progress feel, meting out exposition and character details so that the viewer knows just enough to be invested, while carefully unfurling the story of the relationship in general and this drive in particular. With physical stillness contradicted by living digital landscapes, this Autobahn is an excellent approximation of journeying, the point during a long trip when the road stretches out to infinity, with nothing to entertain but a wandering mind and a conversation partner who can't walk away.
April 1, 2012