An OKC theater is producing a strange new play, here's what you should know about 'Superstitions'
Absurdity and anxiety prove natural if uneasy neighbors in the unabashedly strange new play "Superstitions."
Described by the playwright, Emily Zemba, as "an unconventional dark comedy about navigating our personal and national terrors," "Superstitions" is getting its professional theater debut courtesy Oklahoma City Repertory Theater, which is performing it through March 5 at Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center's Te Ata Theater.
Here's what you need to know about "Superstitions":
Just how new is 'Superstitions?'
"Superstitions" was first staged in 2021 by New York City's The Pool, which uses an artist-led pop-up theater model in which three playwrights produce their plays all together in repertory, meaning they use the same pool of performers.
Zemba, a New York-based playwright originally from Connecticut, went to graduate school at Yale with Oklahoma City Repertory Theater Artistic Director Kelly Kerwin, who read an early draft of "Superstitions" in 2015. It stuck with her, and it's not hard to figure out why once you see the show.
Kerwin not only selected "Superstitions" for OKC Rep's 2022-2023 season, giving the play its professional theater debut, but also opted to direct the show.
The production actually marks Kerwin's professional theater directorial debut: Before coming to OKC, she worked more as a producer, specifically as the associate producer for The Public Theater's Under the Radar Festival in New York.
Last year, Zemba joined Kerwin in Oklahoma City to help develop "Of a Mind: OKC," an innovative and immersive guided audio tour of the urban core. Oklahoma City clearly made an impression on Zemba: She writes in the "Superstitions" program that the show "takes place in an American city. For a long time, I considered the setting to be something like New York."
But in the second week of rehearsals with OKC Rep, she writes that, "The play suddenly sprang to life and made more sense to me here, in OKC. People really talk to each other here — on the street, on a bench, at Elemental Coffee. They strike up conversations — both sweet and odd."
What is 'Superstitions?' about?
Sweet and odd conversations form the basis of "Superstitions," an eerily atmospheric and somewhat abstract show.
Staged without intermission, the 85-minute play follows eight people making their way through an unnamed city, highlighting the conversations and connections that happen as their lives intersect.
On a bench, the hustling Neredia (Breezy Leigh, a New Jersey native based in California) stops for a stick of gum and encounters Grieg (OKC actor Ronn Burton), a foreigner boasting a large map and obvious accent. He offers her a penny he finds on the ground near her feet, which leads to a discussion about superstitions, including the surprisingly dark origins of some of those commonly held irrational beliefs.
Due to the apparent language barrier, Grieg doesn't quite get the concept of superstitions, but he clearly knows about bad luck and personal tragedy.
Next, we meet a chatty, upwardly mobile couple — Jane (local actor Emily J. Pace) and Michael (a Brooklyn-based Philadelphia actor who was in the original Broadway cast of Aaron Sorkin's adaptation of "To Kill a Mockingbird") — anxiously waiting on a real estate agent to show them what they hope will be the first home they buy together.
Then, a flustered moviegoer named Sildat (Daxx, a trans, nonbinary Brooklyn-based Lebanese-American actor who graduated from Oklahoma City University) has a memorable encounter with another solo ticketholder, Henry (Norman actor Alexi Smith), who recently walked away from his longtime job.
And at the base of an intriguing skyscraper, we find two wandering characters known only as Older (OKC actor Ford Austin) and Younger (nonbinary Edmond-based performer Ashley J. Mandanas): They are a neglectful father guiltily treating his disillusioned adolescent child to a trip to the city.
One of the most satisfying aspects of "Superstitions" is watching as the connections among the diverse group of characters are revealed.
Who should see 'Superstitions?'
"Superstitions" is for adult theatergoers looking for something new, different and odd, who would be into a show that is more about characters, dialogue and mood than a traditional narrative.
The surrealist play touches obliquely on contemporary concerns about jobs, housing and climate change while delving into timely and universal themes of isolation, uncertainty and loss.
The show also features a falling salt shaker, a weird dance sequence and a creepy cameo of sorts from a mythological creature.
Finely acted and assuredly directed, "Superstitions" is never boring to watch. After all, it boasts a bright pink set designed by Edward T. Morris, mesmerizing lighting design by Christina Watanabe and often eerie sound design by Tye Hunt Fitzgerald.
What's next for OKC Rep?
OKC Rep will next stage Tarell Alvin McCraney's "The Brothers Size" April 27-May 7 at Oklahoma Contemporary. The nonprofit professional theater received this year a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to produce its 2022-2023 season finale.
Along with winning an Academy Award for adapting his semi-autobiographical play "In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue" into the 2017 Best Picture winner "Moonlight," McCraney penned "The Brother/Sister Plays," three interconnected stories set in the Louisiana bayou. Making its Oklahoma premiere, "The Brothers Size" is one-third of his trio of contemporary stories incorporating poetry, music, dance and West African mythology.
'SUPERSTITIONS'
When: 8 p.m. March 3, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. March 4, and 2 p.m. March 5.
Where: Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center's Te Ata Theater, 11 NW 11.
Ticket prices: From $62.70 to Pay-What-You-Can seats as cheap as $5.
Information: https://www.okcrep.org.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma City Repertory Theater is performing comedy 'Superstitions'
