Much to love — and ponder — in ‘Gambrels’
“Gambrels of the Sky,” the new play at the Landing Theatre, has all the unruliness of an overgrown garden.
Sprawling with ideas, the script by Houston’s Elizabeth A.M. Keel touches on Genesis, Shakespeare, dominance and submission, sisterhood and time portals. It stars Eve — yes, from the Bible — living in a world of dragons and drug addicts, whose inhabitants practice witchcraft and smoke American Spirits.
“Gambrels” is everywhere and anytime, a setting fit for a play whose vision is as ambitious as it is meandering, like a wild vine reaching for heaven.
Keel’s story about a fast-talking Eve who has escaped from Eden — into a future that also reeks of the past — hints at Margaret Atwood’s speculative fiction, particularly “The Year of the Flood.” Its plot, which is centered on Eve’s attempts to conjure up a man for mysterious purposes, zigzags in ways both exciting and frustrating.
Eve (Cheramie Hopper) leads a three-woman band of bandits. Her followers are former prostitute Rose (Cindy Lou Parker) and September (a hotblooded Shelby Marie), a feisty wanderer who wears leather jackets and combat boots while plucking dragons’ scales for sport.
Their home is a wonder to look at, filled with artifacts from nearly every imaginable era, including a set of the card game “Apples to Apples.” It’s one of many instances of cheeky, notso-subtle symbolism in the production.
But all that metaphorical imagery gets in the way of the plot, which is purposefully hazy to begin with. A serpentine sprite named Dog, played with sinister confidence by Callina Situka, and a faceless Shadow (a chilling Jason Duga) disrupt the women’s quest for liberation. Still, what do these characters really want? Where are they headed? What fuels their motivation? More clarity in these matters would have given the story momentum without taking away its enigmatic allure.
Still, Keel’s vision offers much to love. At its core is a smart re-imagining of Biblical creation that suggests the Garden of Eden also was a den of patriarchy. Eve’s ticked off by her fallen stature, and by the fact that she was never in control of her narrative. That’s why the followers she’s chosen are fierce and feminine. They take what they want and do as they please, be it murdering or dancing or conjuring a man out of thin air.
“Gambrels of the Sky” tries to do too much, but it’s always earnest and often daring in its trying. After the show, someone called the play’s style “Magical Keelism,” recalling the way it blends the real and the mythical without feeling derivative.
Here is a show overflowing with many good ideas, yet still in search of a great one. There’s excellence in this play. It’s just tucked deep inside, under the fig leaves and apple trees, waiting to burst through.