Several times in Under the Skin, a bell goes off on one of the character’s cell phones. Whenever it does, the character closes her eyes and breathes deeply. What is this? It’s a “mindfulness” app, she explains to a fellow she’s just met. It rings at random times to remind her to be mindful.
Being mindful, aware, in the moment, is something that trips up these characters (beautifully played at Everyman Theatre by Megan Anderson and Keith L. Royal Smith). There are too many stumbling blocks in their past -- and one very big decision looming in their future.
Megan Anderson’s character, Raina, is the estranged daughter of a man who shows up on her doorstep unexpected, unannounced and in stage five renal failure. He needs a kidney – quite possibly hers.
A play about a kidney transplant might sound like a movie-of-the-week tearjerker. But playwright Michael Hollinger is too much of a theater craftsman for that.
He’s written a script full of theatrical devices, revelations and even humor -- all skillfully conveyed by director Vincent M. Lancisi. One of Hollinger’s cleverest devices is the way he uses direct audience address.
Characters speak directly to the audience at various points throughout the play, beginning in the second scene, right after Raina’s father, Lou, has told her he’s a candidate for a kidney transplant. Instead of only monologues, these direct-address passages often include interruptions by other characters.
These sections don’t just didactically spell out the play’s themes, they also disarm the audience. And, those themes are indeed broader than organ transplants – though that’s certainly a weighty issue and a personal one for Everyman. The theater’s resident lighting designer, Jay A. Herzog, underwent a liver transplant just a year ago.
Relationships between parents and children are also central to Under the Skin. Will Raina get over her deep-seated resentment of her father enough to consider being his donor? Mitchell Hebert gives an appropriately gruff portrayal of this distant dad.
Raina gets encouragement from Keith Royal Smith’s character, Jarrell. Jarrell strikes up a conversation with Raina in a coffee shop; he’s hoping to donate a kidney to a close family friend.
The two feel a bond that turns out to be something deeper than either imagined. At this point, Under the Skin threatens to morph into Greek tragedy. Later, in a scene with Raina and Jarrell in Lou’s hospital room, their interaction verges on farce.
As the jolt from near-tragedy to broad farce suggests, Under the Skin is trying to be and do too much. Add some dark, past revelations by Jarrell’s mother -- played with great warmth by Alice M. Gatling – and Under the Skin goes over the top.
For example, the play’s climactic 11th hour revelation by Lou’s doctor is so obvious that at the performance I attended, an audience member called it out before the doctor could say it.
Everyman’s production is only the second time Under the Skin has been staged. Playwright Hollinger has made revisions since the play debuted in Philadelphia last year. And director Lancisi and his fine cast deliver a carefully wrought, sensitive production.
However, that very sensitivity makes the instances of overstatement stand out all the more. With further fine-tuning, this intriguing look at an important issue – rarely seen on stage – just might touch the heart.
