Somewhere in Minnesota, two best friends with a complex history each wish on what is deemed a soft star in the sky. What develops over time will test the limits of their friendship and much more.
Contemplatively directed by Bridget Kathleen O’Leary, Boston Playwrights Theatre presents Tina Esper’s supernatural drama Soft Star through Sunday, November 24 part of the Boston Playwrights Theatre’s Fall Rep Festival. This absorbing production runs 85 minutes with no intermission. Click here for more information and for tickets.
Boston Playwrights Theatre’s Fall Rep Festival features two new productions from living authors taking place on one stage and scenic designer Maggie Shivers continues to make distinctive use of the space for these two vastly different productions. With fold out compartments that pose as couches, a barbecue grill and shelves, cast members transform the set and props between scenes from a beachside setting to a completely new landscape. Zachary Connell’s starlit and warm lighting adds an ethereal quality to the production featuring lanterns and luminous creatures boosted by Kai Bolman’s mystical sound design. Set within the span of the 70’s and 80s, E. Rosser’s colorful costumes depicts fashion trends of the time such as baby doll dresses, keds sneakers, and Henley shirts.
A complex drama of jealousy, isolation, insecurity, secrets and longing, Soft Star is poignant and wistful as Jane and Belle search for a sense of belonging as they contemplate about the direction their lives have taken. There is a real sense of uncertainty from these individuals as the show progresses. Annika Bolton as Jane, Jesse Kodama as Dick, Mairéad O’Neill as Belle and Kamran Bina as Mitch make up a tightly woven group that also share building tension and passive aggressiveness, especially among Dick and Mitch who are best friends working together as well as a palpable chemistry between Mitch and Jane.
What is wonderfully fascinating about Soft Star is how best friends Annika Bolton as Jane and Mairéad O’Neill as Belle’s connection and priorities mature and evolve over time. From two coming of age girls to established women, Esper’s script explores the transforming interests of these individuals and at the same time, depicts how some reflections on their lives never change.
With an elements of magic and mysticism, Soft Star is an intriguing and imaginative drama fueled by Esper’s layered script which unfolds from a straightforward narrative to how life becomes immensely complicated through circumstances and when other emotions take hold. Emotions that linger and ripen even as people mature exasperated by a wish.
Boston Playwrights Theatre presents Tina Esper’s supernatural drama Soft Star through Sunday, November 24 part of the Boston Playwrights Theatre’s Fall Rep Festival. The show runs 85 minutes with no intermission. Click here for more information and for tickets.