BWW Reviews: Finding Your Way to THE OTHER PLACE

"This play is difficult to talk about. On purpose," is how director Brenda DeVita's note in the playbill for her newest production begins. DeVita's brevity in her directorial note is a tribute to the sensitive nature of The Other Place as well as a testament to her talent as a director.

The Other Place is a 2013 Broadway triumph and is now, too, a triumph of Madison's own Forward Theater Company.

Comprised of four performers, Sharr White's all too real script revolves around drug company scientist Juliana. Juliana is a powerful woman in the pharmaceutical industry who, as she reaches 52, begins to struggle with her mental capacities. She concludes before her consultation with a doctor that she has brain cancer - the same prognosis that took her parents before her. What unfolds following her realization is a reflection of the darker aspects of human life that often get swept under the rug.

Following the hexagonal staircases, very closely resembling the strings of molecules that Juliana has studied all of her life, leading lady Juliana (poignantly portrayed by Tracy Michelle Arnold) climbs through facets of her life that others cannot see. Arnold's seamless transitions between the present and past of her character's memory are breathtaking. Her wit draws audiences into the performance from the moment it begins while her sense of raw, unadulterated emotion keeps them there.

Arnold's costars, Steven M. Koehler, Georgina McKee, and William Bolz playing (Ian, The Woman, and The Man respectively) muster their skills to follow these transitions as their own personas. The individuals in Juliana's life who simply cannot, or will not, understand what is going on with her. As DeVita states further in her Director's Note, "it takes a great deal of listening and patience to truly understand another person"; which is a fact of life that all characters played by the three must come to terms with. All three work in remarkable tandem with Arnold, reacting in the moment with every sudden change.

When asked during the talk back how the reactions would vary by performance McKee candidly stated, "you just have to meet them where they are". A statement that not only summarizes the purpose of the show itself, rightly entitled The Other Place which denotes multiple meanings, but also how this group of talented actors could come together for a show that is so unbelievably difficult to respond to.

Theatre is meant to entertain and teach.

In this capacity, In the Other Place is a theatrical masterpiece. It is a piece of emotionally draining theatre that leaves one bereft of words to describe it. It should be regarded as a glimpse into the roadblocks of life's journey while remaining at a safe distance. White's writing translates so many realities of life that many have had to endure into a ninety minute reminder of how important it is to take a breath and see things from another person's perspective.

Forward Theater Company is, after the joy of a holiday season, reminding everyone that there's always another side to a story. There is always The Other Place.

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