Review: Seattle Public Theater's THE OTHER PLACE Beyond Brilliant

Dealing with a potentially unreliable narrator can be an emotionally frustrating experience. I feel betrayed by a production where I feel like I cannot believe what the storyteller is conveying to me, because, truly, what was the point of entrusting a deceptive narrator with your time? But in "The Other Place" at Seattle Public Theater, our narrator Juliana Smithton's fluctuation of truth and delusion is, in fact, her subjective truth in a story of dementia and the trauma it inflicts. Never once did I feel betrayed by our protagonist: if anything, I felt I learned the most about her story from the grey area between reality and fantasy thanks to Amy Thone's brilliant performance.

Juliana Smithton is a hard-boiled drug-company scientist telling her story mid-lecture at a pharmaceutical conference in St. Thomas. She comes off as someone who is an undoubtedly reliable narrator: she is firm, intelligent, and severe. But one surreal moment in the middle of her lecture throws her off, sending Juliana's textbook retelling into a tailspin of fragmented, slippery memories. Thanks to a superior performance by Amy Thone as Juliana, the more discombobulated the narration, the more engaging it becomes.

Amy Thone's performance as Juliana was hands down one of the greatest displays of acting I have ever seen. She gracefully transitioned between monologue and dialogue, despite the dramatic tonal disparity from one to another. For example, Thone speaks to the audience about her fixation on a woman in a yellow bathing suit with a very vulnerable, remorseful demeanor. Mid-thought, she switches tracks to moments of sparring with her doctor, to patronizing her daughter, to guilt-tripping her husband. Thone never lost Juliana's strength and vigor over the course of her physical and spiritual transformation. Her performance in this is not to be missed.

That said, Ray Gonzalez as Juliana's husband Ian held his own. Even when Juliana berates him with accusations of infidelity and divorce, he stays grounded and noble. Jocelyn Maher played numerous roles (though interestingly is only accredited as "The Woman" in the cast list) such as Juliana's daughter Laurel and Juliana's psychiatrist, Dr. Teller. Another brilliant tactic was to utilize the same actress to play multiple roles of a woman that Juliana would scramble or conflate. Maher did a wonderful job of making certain that each character had unique gravity and yet still had me confusing her characters, as intended.

Tommer Peterson's scenic design is a force to be reckoned with through their use of a lot of subtle tweaks to the environment to make it seem ethereal. The Cape Cod cottage felt like a page from Pottery Barn's catalog, but the way that the windows were pieced together and the height difference between the first and second floors gave the scene a feeling of impossibility. But it never felt messy, just a vague recollection of what the Cape Cod house used to look like. The use of small platforms on stage physically separated these moments in time in a very effective, cinematic way.

This play will challenge you mentally. You will have many moments where you will feel jostled and mislead, where you are not sure if it is the narrator's memory that is unreliable, or your own.

The Seattle Public Theatre realized a woman's most private, subjective mental deterioration with aplomb. Juliana's cerebral journey, though tumultuous, results in a very well rounded, heartwrenching end that will leave you speachless. Above all, Thone's portrayal of a brilliant mind truly brought this production over the top. I give "The Other Place" 5/5 stars.

"The Other Place" performs at Seattle Public Theater through April 17th, 2016. For tickets and information, visit them online at www.seattlepublictheater.org.

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