Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Random triumph
“Random World” enchants in SoFla production.
What if you had stayed with this person or broken up with that one? What if you just missed meeting someone who would alter your life?
Playwright Steven Dietz explores the world of “what if ” with humor, warmth and compassion in “This Random World,” which premiered in March at the Humana Festival of New American Plays in Louisville. It is now getting a full production staged by Theatre Lab artistic director Louis Tyrrell. The result is a gloriously acted, intimate, enchanting production.
The characters in “This Random World” are connected by birth, choice or happenstance. Scottie Ward (Harriet Oser), a vibrant older woman who uses a walker to get around, is the mother of 38-year-old Beth Ward (Elizabeth Price) and 29-year-old Tim Ward (Joe Ferraelli), who are about as different as siblings can be.
Beth is adventuresome and quirky, so much so that when she’s about to go off on a trip to Nepal, she leaves her pre-written obituary with Tim, in case the worst should happen.
What Beth and Tim don’t know is that their ailing mother has been traveling the world in secret with her aide, Bernadette (Maha McCain). She’s planning one last trip, to a shrine in Kyoto where she’ll carry out a ritual.
Another soon-to-beover couple are connected to both Ward siblings. Clair (Kelli Mohrbacher), Tim’s high school girlfriend, has met her current boyfriend, Gary (Matt Stabile), in a crummy restaurant, where he proceeds to dump her. Afterward, he goes on a trip to Nepal, where he meets fellow traveler Beth.
Dietz links his characters in imaginative, unexpected ways, including giving lines to people no longer among the living. Connections made and missed affect the trajectory of the story, which unfolds in short scenes over 90 intermission-free minutes.
The acting in “This Random World” is exquisite. Price makes eccentricity alluring in her portrayal of Beth, and Mohrbacher is sadly hilarious as Clair. As Scottie, who pointedly cherishes each sunrise, Oser is serene and radiant.
Tyrrell’s long association with Dietz and his work is an artistically rich relationship, one of choice, not chance. And with “This Random World,” Theatre Lab audiences are the richer for it.
“This Random World” is running through Dec. 18 in Parliament Hall on the Florida Atlantic University Campus, 777 Glades Road, in Boca Raton. Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. ThursdaySaturday and 3 p.m. Sunday. Tickets cost $35. To order, call 561-297-6124 or go to FAUevents.com.