By David Walters
I’ve been following the Hook & Eye Theater company for some time, and their best work so far is now playing at their performance space in Brooklyn through November 13.
Entitled, Space Nunz of the Rescue Main Frame, the play is an exploration of our memories and how we manipulate them to appease our tastes, how we selectively choose our narratives, and the idea that, “We remember so that we can be remembered.”
What you will remember from the evening will be different from what I saw depending on which night you go as the play is interactive and the audience lends a hand in choosing what memory is unfolded before them for that particular evening.
Asking the question, “Where do our memories go when they are lost?” there are two interwoven storylines that rely on each other, one a futuristic memory preserver conglomerate of Nunz that work with AI to recapture lost memories from a decimated planet, its inhabitants scattered across the universe (us), and the memory they are striving to preserve, of two families from Echo Lake, New Hampshire that clash over revealed secrets and emotional memories that have festered and explode in an all-hell-breaks-loose moment.
The cast, anchored by June Lienhard as Chloe, whose memory they are trying to preserve, plays well together. There are absurd tangents the story flies off on, and quiet touching moments of emotional depth, all handled adroitly by the actors as a team, playing off of and with each other to present an entertaining, surprising, thought-provokingly interactive evening, It’s a rich play that can be seen several times and still not reveal all of its nuances.
And the last word spoken to all this self-inflicted mayhem is, love.
Space Nunz of the Rescue Mainframe plays at the Mark O’Donnell Theater, 160 Schermerhorn Street, Brooklyn, through November 13, 2022. The running time is 90 minutes with no intermission. Performances are Wednesdays through Saturdays at 7:30 and Sundays at 2; no performance Thursday 11/13, and additional performance Saturday 11/12 at 2. Tickets are $35 ($39.02 with online fees). For tickets and more information visit hookandeyetheater.com.
Space Nunz of the Rescue Mainframe is by Elizabeth Wong, devised and created by the ensemble of Hook & Eye. Directed by Chad Lindsey. Assistant Director is Virginia Venk. The production Manager is Leah McVeigh. Scenic Design by Chad Lindsey and DALL-E. Projection Design by Lianne Arnold. Costume Design by Krista Intranuovo Pineman. Lighting Design by Joyce Liao. Sound Design by Carsen Joenk. Choreography by Parnia Ayari. Fight Choreography by The Sordelets. Intimacy Director is Daniella Caggiano. Stage Manager is Mary Kate Baughman. Production Electrician is Broderick Ballantyne. Farsi Translation by Sade Namei.
The cast is Parnia “Nyx” Ayari, Cynthia Babak, Carrie Heitman, June Lienhard, Elizabeth London, Jake Malavsky, Afsheen Misaghi, and Nylda Mark.
As always, this is just one man’s opinion in a world filled with them.
