Annex Theatre's maritime production of Emerald lacks polish, but not heart

Emerald shows Thursdays thru Saturdays until the 29th

Annex Theatre's commitment to new works has  brought another production from page to stage in the form of Emerald and the Love Song of the Dead Fishermen by Brendan Healy, who also directed, and who seems to have a penchant for wordy titles. His play The Secret Recordings of Lenin to His Lost Love, Marry Anne of Topeka, KS will be published in Rain City Project's Manifesto 2 anthology. One can't help but be curious.

Wonder Russell plays the title role

Annex's intimate space has been transformed into a fishermen's wharf with the help of low-budget props and a mostly paper mache set, courtesy of the production team, Pony World. Dont' expect impressive costumes or flashy technical aspects, but rather an imaginative reality and a creatively used puppet shadow show. It opens with an original "sea chanty" which is a motif woven throughout the show. While the chanties are enjoyable and clever, they don't seem to add anything to the overall story. After the audience is introduced to the occasionally off-key fishermen who form the backdrop for the story and offer us pithy and useful trivia on sailing lore, we meet Emerald, played by Wonder Russell in a neon-green wig. We discover that her father died before she was born, and the green hair is a metaphorical by-product of his demise, green being (as discussed by the superstitious fishermen on the wharf) a terrifyingly unlucky color. Although it is intimated, the reference to Emerald's loneliness and exclusion as a result of her hair color is never fully explored, and may have added more depth to the character.

Emerald's place of employment is a thinly disguised parody of Starbucks, whose innately evil "corporate suits" provide the villains that plague Emerald as she seeks the father who will, for one day, be resurrected to walk on the Island of Dead Fishermen. Her quest is to find him and, purportedly, some kind of unknown information that will provide the closure she, in her lonely, 25-year-old angst, has been longing for. She is assisted by a shy and humorous love interest, played by Paul Vitulli and a female captain attempting to disguise her unfortunate gender with a beard. The play swings from hilarity to truly touching, although sometimes the audience is unsure which mode they are supposed to be in.

Many of the performers are talented and every actor except Wonder Russell portrays multiple characters and, on occasion, set pieces. Most notable is Sann Hall, whose touching portrayal as Emerald's mother seems to anchor the play. In contrast, BJ Peterson's rendition of Emerald's dead father teeters on comically creepy, although he seems to be aiming for naivete or innocence. This frequently seems to be a balance that the show struggles to maintain without much success. There are significant moments in which the audience might easily be induced to cry, were it not wondering whether or not it was appropriate to laugh. Emerald does manage, however, to be touching and sweetly fantastical. Were it adapted to eliminate strong language and a bar scene, it could easily be an excellent children's theatre production.

Sann Hall gives a delightful performance as the mother and others

The technical aspects of the show were clunky and slow, reminding the audience just how low-budget a production we were watching. A more polished production and smoother transitions would have significantly heightened the suspension of disbelief and allowed the audience to accept the more bizarre choices in direction. Despite this lack of professionalism, however, the actors somehow manage, perhaps in part due to the intimate nature of the space, to coerce their audience into caring about them and the outcome of the show. We find ourselves pulling for Emerald, hoping that her friend will find the courage to confess his love for her, intrigued by the dead father's hearkening to his old life and desire to connect with it. We are led to the climactic moment when all elements that the show has been building to finally connect, but the denouement is somewhat disappointing, and does not provide the closure for Emerald that the audience has been hoping for. It still manages to end on an up-note, but leaves the audience wishing for the satisfaction that earlier scenes had promised.