Ricardo Vázquez, Tracey Maloney, Mikell Sapp and Audrey Park in THE GREAT DIVIDE II. Photo by George Byron Griffiths.
The Great Divide II is a collection of 5 short one acts presented without intermission by Pillsbury House Theatre (through March 25), a follow-up to last season’s successful The Great Divide. The plays – by Andrew Rosendorf, Christina M. Ham, Tim J. Lord, Jessica Huang and Stacey Rose – were commissioned and like many plays with relatively wide open assigned material – Write us a play about the relationship between “truth” and “facts” – the plays seem perfunctory and often deliberately obscure. One spends as much time trying to figure out what is going on as one does enjoying the play. At least I did. Is this a portrait of the Rapture? Did someone just fly a plane into Mount Rushmore? Is the vape smoke really poisonous?
Still, there are rich and vivid moments: the moment when “writer redacted” gives up the nest of vipers in the newspaper office for the (nest of vipers, take it from me) in the theater; Tracey Maloney telling the screamingly unfunny Sven and Ole joke, then celebrating with a lungful of toxic vapor; the self-righteous Mt. Rushmore visitors.
And then the wonderful last play, the worth-the-price-of-admission piece: Breathe, by Andrew Rosendorf. About an encounter between a hunter (Maloney) and an (apparently) dying polar bear (Audrey Park). The (talking) bear alternates between rage and passivity. There’s obscurity aplenty – where are we? How did a polar bear get here? As symbols in this post-climate change age polar bears are old news. But who cares. There’s a dreaminess to Breathe and a marvelous understated intensity.
When I think of the acting in The Great Divide II, I think first of Park, she of such sweet and soft power. But the other actors also do well: Mikell Sapp is erect and forceful, and ditto Ricardo Vázquez. Maloney as always thrills with her tentative and vulnerable charisma.
Pillsbury is wonderful space. And despite their occasional herky-jerky structure, these plays are well worthwhile.
John Olive is a writer living in Minneapolis. His book, Tell Me A Story In The Dark, about the magic of bedtime stories, has been published. Please visit John’s informational website.