Curtain Call

Low "Flow" at MadLab

By Jay Weitz

If you remember Brave New World, think of what Aldous Huxley did with "soma," the widely used hallucinogen that kept people in that novel compliant, complacent and oblivious. Soma had "all of the advantages of Christianity and alcohol, none of their defects," Huxley wrote.

Now look at MadLab's Flow and see what playwright Chris Lane does with the antidepressant drug of his title. That is, not much.

With its dozen interrelated characters, Flow aspires to the breadth of a Robert Altman film, but just try to decide who might be taking Flow and who isn't, let alone what the point of it all might be.

There's the pharmaceutical mogul Mr. Manhouse, played with the glee of a mad scientist by David Thonnings. He's in cahoots with the ambitious Senator Bram (Stephen Woosley), who has a mistress named Tic Tac (Sarah Brunet) and a scheming Ruthless Mother (Randi Morgan).

Manhouse has fired Chef Hernandez, played by the always effervescent Traci Weaver, and now employs the gentle Callie (Nikki Smith) and a patient cook named Dennis (Ric Shoemaker) who caters to his every whim.

Then there's the Psychiatrist (Josh Kessler), who treats the desperately lonely Man (Jason Dahmer), who meets and befriends the Crazy Lady (Linda O'Donnell). And somehow, Callie's perpetually petulant friend Lineolea (Vicki Andronis) and the deceptively amiable assassin Wildcard (Mike Moore) end up together.

Playwright Lane skips from story to story to story, randomly revealing tragic pasts and violent presents, while director Michelle Batt does her best to bring it all together. Pretty much everyone does come together, in person or as phantom, in the Altman-esque final scene of Manhouse's "Trap Trap Party," where the Flow is as abundant as candy mints.

What doesn't come together, however, is Flow itself. Presented with the collaboration of Bram's government and Manhouse's pharmaceutical industry, the play creates expectations for a political critique that never materializes.

There is a punch line, of sorts, having to do with the side effects of a drug touted as having no known side effects. You might even call it "Brave New Pill," but you're unlikely to call it "Insightful New Play."

October 25, 2007

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