Can stories—fairy tales, personal experiences (embarrassing, horrifying, hilarious, X-rated, whatever)—change the world?
In playwright Annie Baker’s “The Antipodes,” now in an exquisite West Coast premiere by the Actors’ Reading Collective, facilitator Sandy, in an introductory spiel, assures his small group of employees that, indeed, stories can do so.
The group’s employer is a futuristically minded company apparently researching the very nature of storytelling. It’s up to the employees to explore the nuances of the concept.
Eight employees (including Sandy) all in various degrees of anticipation, are seated around an oval table in a suitably nondescript conference room. Some are regulars, others are newbies. And when the office manager, Sarah (Isabel Langen), pops in and out, the temperature in the room changes subtly each time.
“This is a sacred space,” Sandy assures them. Everyone is encouraged to delve in, open their minds, use their imaginations. What could possibly go wrong?
Innocently enough, their confessions begin.
Baker, whose work is hyper-naturalistic in the best possible way—realistic, everyday characters speak clear, succinct dialogue loaded with layers of feeling and meaning—is, like the company her “Antipodes” characters work for, investigating storytelling.
Whether Sandy’s initial promise is empty or not, Baker’s exploration, over the course of two hours (with no intermission), is never less than riveting. (“Antipodes,” geographically speaking, are points on the earth’s surface exactly in opposition.)
The play is an excellent choice for the Collective’s first full production, allowing for oodles of deep, personalized subtext. (The Collective includes established local actors who came together during the pandemic to present one-off staged readings.) The cast, under Alyson Schacherer’s elegant and seamless direction, is stellar throughout.
Under the seemingly calm and benign leadership of Sandy (Robert Parsons at his relaxed but internally disturbed best), the employees struggle along. They confess, fabricate and wonder. What if time had a vertical and a horizontal axis, posits one. Another—quietly, beautifully played by Howard Swain—digs deep to relate his life’s biggest regret. Yet another—Harry Davis, almost heartbreakingly intense—obsessively researches the lifespans of certain animals.
The play unfurls over the course of several months as the various employees react, each in their own specific way, to an increasingly tense work environment.
They include Timothy Roy Redmond’s rage-aholic Dave, David Sinaiko’s self-confident Danny, and Rajiv Shah as Josh.
Samuel Ademola plays the significantly named Adam, whose long penultimate monologue, a creation tale, is delivered as if made up at that exact moment. Liz Sklar, whose Eleanor is the only woman on the research team, gets the short, final, pitch-perfect monologue.
“We need stories as a culture,” says Sandy. “These are hard times.” We certainly need the gem-like stories that Annie Baker and this company can tell.
Actors’ Reading Collective’s “The Antipodes” continues through Dec. 1 at Marin Shakespeare Co., 514 Fourth St., San Rafael. Tickets are $20-$100 at arcstream.org/theantipodes.
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