Robin believes in the existence of extra-terrestrials. She apparently also believes in the tooth fairy, the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus and Tinker Bell, or so one would assume after watching and listening to her in "Intelligent Life," a play whose action denies its title, or else pokes fun at it. It opened over the weekend at the Kranzberg Center as a production of Hot City Theatre, to run through May 14. Limp might be a better action verb.
Lauren Dusek Albanico's offering, a first play, seems to be looking at faith, or as her writing tells us, wanting something desperately enough to make it happen. So when a pre-teen boy, who has run away from home in what he describes as a dinosaur costume and speaks in a sort of Pig Latin, Robin is positive that he is the extra-terrestrial she's been looking for since she was a child.
Robin (Aarya Sara Locker) and Beau (Scott Schneider) are the staff of an organization that seeks those folk from outer space. Their office is in a basement. Jessie (Emily Fisher) is a Hooters waitress and Beau's girl friend. Gary (the excellent, very funny Kevin Beyer) is an old lush who hangs out there. Aethan (very good work by Parker S. Donovan) is the boy. An interesting twist is provided by Alan McClintock; dressed as a county sheriff, he makes the standard pre-curtain speech about turning off noisemakers. Later, he shows up in the play, also as a county sheriff.
Beau and Gary quickly understand the situation and so does Jessie, given her work experience but Robin goes overboard. Aethan, whose costumes include a T-shirt from www.utahalienchasers.com, is happy to find kindred–if far less mature–people to give him a place to stay. Young Parker is first-rate, with a proper attitude and affect, and Beyer is having a good time, which is quickly understood and appreciated by the audience. Locker is saddled with lines so dumb a Regrave couldn't make the role work. C. Otis Sweezey designed the set, a room where a college kid obviously lives. And if the writing is not enough to cause depression, the conclusion is.
Intelligent Life, a production of Hot City Theatre, is on stage at the Kranzberg Art Center, through May 14
—Joe