Review: LAMPEDUSA at Contemporary Theater Company

Allow me to introduce Stefano and Denise, the anguished characters in Anders Lustgarden’s powerful two-hander, ‘Lampedusa,’ now at Contemporary Theater Company, so the next time you’re having a bad day at work, I want you to think of these two.

Stefano is a fisherman from the Italian island of Lampedusa, close to Africa, where he retrieves the corpses of drowned refugees from the Mediterranean. To help pay for school, Denise goes door-to-door collecting debt for a payday loan company, visiting the homes of delinquent borrowers.

Through a series of haunting alternating monologues, Stefano and Denise describe in painstaking, graphic detail the daily trials and tribulations of their occupations. The bloated bodies Stefano finds are “like oiled, lumpy rubbish bags sliding through your fingers,” while half-Chinese, half-British Denise endures racial slurs and chronic criers–unless they’re leaping from a third-story window to avoid her.

But ‘Lampedusa’ isn’t an examination of least desirable professions, but rather a commentary–or arguably, condemnation–of the society that warrants the necessity of these positions. Although their experiences are vastly different, the thoughts and words spoken aloud by Stefano and Denise call attention to such preeminent issues as mass migration, age and ethnic discrimination, socioeconomic inequality, and climate change. The tone throughout, while compelling and enriching, is purposefully unsettling and unapologetically bleak.

Both individuals are dealing with extreme predicaments, which explains why they are suspicious and hesitant in the presence of kindness. Denise is taken aback when a Portuguese single mother invites her in for tea, and Stefano unexpectedly befriends Modibo, a mechanic from Mali waiting to be reunited with his wife. The characters remind the audience that despite the dire circumstances, there still remains an iota of hope.

Both actors deliver superlative performances. Michael Alper’s Stefano personifies the hardened everyman, whose unthreatening albeit cautious disposition exudes trust, sympathy, and a select rugged charm. As the high-strung Denise, whose attitude drips with angst and disgust, Rosa Nguyen showcases remarkable stage presence. Rather than alienating the audience with her hopelessness, Nguyen earns the audience’s affection, admiration and loyalty.

I commend director Tylar Jahumpa for entrusting the audience with such challenging content, and the actors certainly deliver it successfully, but I wonder if Lustgarden’s script would have been better served on a black box stage (instead of an outdoor patio). Such stinging, descriptive phrases as “dead kids weigh nothing” and “dried fly in the web the spider forgot to eat” would likely land with an even greater impact in a dark, enclosed space. Nevertheless, while not for the faint of heart, ‘Lampedusa’ is a worthwhile, unique, unforgettable theater experience.

‘Lampedusa’ runs through September 28th at Contemporary Theater Company, 327 Main Street in Wakefield, RI. For tickets and information, call 401-218-0282 or visit https://www.contemporarytheatercompany.com/

Photo by Rebecca Magnotta

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