I and You @ Echo Theatre
—Hannah Kneen
When I walked into the Bath House Cultural Center on Friday night I must admit I wasn’t expecting to be thrown quite so viscerally into the year 2014. Before the show actually starts the audience sees Olivia Cinquepalmi’s vibrant but (rightfully) angsty Caroline hanging out in her room and listening to music. Noah James Heller’s sound design threw me right back in time to that far-off pre-COVID world.
Once the stage is set and the audience welcomed into the world of the play, Tyler “T” Lang (playing Anthony) shows he sure knows how to go about “makin’ an entrance.” Caroline is, of course, immediately interested in why he is entering: she clearly doesn’t know him, and he’s just walked into her bedroom with neither invitation nor explanation, except for the words “I and this mystery here we stand.” The quote is from 19th-century American poet Walt Whitman. We soon find out that Anthony is there for a project on the poet that he’s supposed to be doing with Caroline. Never mind the fact she hasn’t been at school for some time because of severe illness.
Caroline has, in fact, been sick all her life. She responds to the bad hand dealt to her with a lot of sass and impressive skill at pushing people away. Fortunately, Anthony is made of sterner stuff than most, and eventually gets her to read the poem. Surprise, surprise: she loves it. She helps redesign the project poster for Anthony, who is a self-proclaimed agnostic on the subject of glitter and therefore in desperate need of Caroline’s artistic touch. Over the course of the day they grow closer and spill a little more of their guts to each other with every turn in the conversation. The play comes with a killer twist ending, but I don’t want to spoil it. You’ll just have to watch the show to see what happens!
Despite a few slightly hesitant moments, both performers have many more of fantastic humor and authenticity. It’s a joy to watch their interactions. Cinquepalmi brings so much life to Caroline that her state of illness hits us all the harder. She shows a wonderful balance of awkward teenage bluster and defiance against possible death, and moves so seamlessly between the two that she catches us all up in the fate of this character. Tyler “T” Lang has some truly funny moments in a very odd situation. He also has the tricky task of moving from pithy, teen-guy comebacks to soulful explorations of life and death with an (at first) unwilling conversation partner. Both actors work off of each other to create an interplay it’s difficult to look away from. Director Eric Berg clearly knows what he is doing—and that extends to pulling the production’s tech together as well.
The technical elements of the show only enhance the story. Philip Vilar’s lighting design works in concert with Clare Floyd DeVries’s set and prop design to create an interesting cooperation between warm and cool colors. This show is pleasing to the eye and ear as well as the soul. When the technical elements become a little more prominent by the end of the story, everything comes together to have a real impact on the audience.
I feel I have to warn you the story is a bit of a tearjerker: I distinctly heard sniffles in the crowd. However, as a longtime fan of the poet Whitman, I also am very pleased to see that other people agree Walt is, in fact, a total badass!
WHEN: May 18-June 3
WHERE: Bath House Cultural Center
WEB: echotheatre.org
