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Lungs Mines Deeply Personal Subject for Oddly Universal Effect

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SARASOTA – Urbanite Theatre’s latest production, Duncan MacMillan’s Lungs, is less racy than the company’s previous plays, but no less unconventional. Over the course of an hour and a half, a single and connected lifelong conversation between two actors on a blank set manages to strike many deep chords that sufficiently tie together an otherwise manic story of 21st century coupling.


The unnamed couple in the play could easily be mistaken for characters from a Jonathan Franzen novel, in that they at times manage to be deeply unsettling, even to the point of annoyance, if only because they so often remind the audience of the neurotic parts of ourselves we tend to censor from self-perception. As the two millennials struggle through the question of whether to have a child in today’s world, the audience is confronted with a litany of contradictions that any self-aware and even slightly introspective Westerner is bound to find familiar.


Though they fashion themselves as progressive, socially and environmentally responsible citizens, the couple is torn between the infinite reasons they find the idea of bringing a child into the world to be irresponsible, and the innate drive and instinct to procreate. Along the way, they encounter all of the less romantic ups and downs inherent to the process.


Subjects are tackled in a refreshingly-honest fashion. Dialog is tight and tense. MacMillan manages to bring what might seem more familiar as our own internal conversations into the dramatic exchanges to create an almost surreal authenticity and moments of personal recognition. The drama’s powerful crescendo gives it a symphonic feel that is also decidedly Franzenesque.


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photo by Cliff Roles


Urbanite co-founder Brendan Regan thrives in a role that will remind local audiences of his best performances while a student at the FSU/Asolo Conservatory. Regan puts in a good turn as a stifled male leaning heavily on his more emotionally-developed partner until a tragic turn sets him on a path that sees him grow into the person she needed all along.


Fellow Conservatory alum Katie Cunningham shines as the painfully-neurotic female in the couple. Cunningham, who returned to Asolo for a season with the Rep last year where she gave memorable performances in The Others and Both Your Houses, demonstrates tremendous stage presence and delivers the play’s most charged dialog with an almost unsettling authenticity.

 

Under the direction of Daniel Kelly, Urbanite manages to get the very most out of an ambitious play that could all too easily fall flat without the right ingredients and delivers a powerful production that gives its audience much to chew on once they leave the theater. Lungs runs through January 3. Visit the Urbanite website for more information.



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