Antlia Pneumatica
You walk into the theatre, and the stage looks large. It's dimly lit, and there are few set pieces. An over-sized butcher-block island sits at the center. Cookbooks line one of its sides. There's a built in sink, but it's small enough that there's still a great, big work surface. The wooden beams lingering over the island suggest a roof, and the stage right beams are adorned with leafy tree branches, suggesting the outdoors. The walls are all black; you can barely discern the two cutouts on the back wall that serve as entry and exit points. It's like a vacuum, both sucking you in (maybe back to something) and leaving room for your imagination (or memory) to run wild. This scenic design, by Rachel Hauck ( Dry Powder ), wonderfully sets the stage for Anne Washburn 's Antlia Pneumatica , a play that works better on stage than I think did on the page. It's essentially a memory play, and what are memories if not feelings, recollections of some sensory exp...