Photo by C. Stanley Photography. Regina Aquino & Amanda Thickpenny in Brainpeople at Rorschach Theater.

Published on: Wednesday, July 15, 2009

By David Cannon, Sentinel Arts Critic

Imagine one of those strange magic realism stories like Pan’s Labyrinth tailor-made for director Alfred Hitchcock. That will give you a hint at what to expect in Brainpeople, the second show in Rorschach Theater’s current summer “in exile” at the Georgetown University.

This is the type of challenging cerebral play that Rorschach loves to produce and this solid production is both grounded in solid bits of technical details and capable of wild flights of fancy.

A rich woman named Mayannah holds a bizarre anniversary celebration every year. She invites two strangers, little more than beggars on the streets, to her house for an elegant and unusual meal. If the guests last the entire meal, they each get a hefty sum of money. The conversation will range from Greek philosophy to current events. What could possibly go wrong during an evening dinner among strangers?

Need I ask? The scene is set slightly in the future in a post apocalyptic America where police sirens and military sweeps are the norm. Mayannah is more than a little creepy as the hostess, as her dining room is “Gothic chic” with its drab colors and numerous crucifixes. But the money would help the two dinner guests get out of poverty and out of this war zone, so they try to last till the end.

Then there are the guests themselves. Monalisa Arias gets the flashier role of Rosemary, a woman with multiple personalities – the Brainpeople of the title. While not all the personalities are clearly sketched in Jose Rivera’s script, there is an incredible monologue where Arias switches back and forth from one personality to another, at times in mid-sentence. It is a bravura performance.

While a less showy role, Amanda Thickpenny does a good job as the other guest Ani, a quiet, mousy woman who has some great deadpan rejoinders to the evening’s events. In her big monologue Thickpenny does reveal an Ani as bruised by life and as lost in her own fantasy world as Rosemary. Then there is Regina Aquino as hostess Mayannah, who walks a fine line between generous hostess and totally creepy master of ceremonies. Aquino often holds back, listening to the others, but you never forget she is pulling all the strings this evening.

Catherine Tripp takes what could have been a very static play and keeps her trio of actresses in constant motion. Justine Light’s set is elegant in the details and claustrophobic in overall feeling. The audience sits around the action, never more than two rows from the stage. You can watch the actors prepare meals and eat, in an odd mixture of careful observer and equally trapped participant.

This is the type of play where more than once you think you have the puzzle figured out but then things change. This is a world where Edgar Allen Poe would have felt quite at home, but even he might be surprised, dare I say delighted, at the unexpectedly optimistic ending that puts the “magic” back into “magic realism.” 

Brainpeople continues at Rorschach Theater at the David Performing Arts Center at Georgetown University through July 26. For tickets call 800-494-8497 or for more information go online to http://www.rorschachtheatre.org/.

3 stars