Review: WHERE WORDS ONCE WERE at Kennedy Center

Imagine for a second that you lived in a place where your government dictated your vocabulary for your own safety. Imagine then that there was a list of only 1,000 words you were allowed to use and straying from that list would get you arrested. That is the set up for Finegan Kruckemeyer's terrific world premiere play now running at the Kennedy Center called Where Words Once Were.

The location for Kruckemeyer's script is simply The City. The people in The City used words as weapons during a great war, so to effectively stop the fighting, government officials decided to create a list of 1,000 words could be used. The notion was that words would rotate on and off the list. If you were caught saying a word not included on the list, you could be arrested. The regulations do not stop with the list though. Pens are deemed so dangerous that only government officials are allowed to carry them. If you are a student and want to take notes, you have to borrow a pen from your teacher and return it to his lock box at the end of class.

This brings us to the story presented in Kruckemeyer's play. Orhan (Chris Lane), the son of a baker named Alli (Regina Aquino), has two school friends Ella and Kieran (Aquino and Tony Nam). Their teacher (Marcus Kyd) is a strict taskmaster. If you say a word that's not on the government's list in his class, you get one warning and then you're out. You even have to take a pledge before borrowing a pen, which goes something like this:

"This is my pen, I'll use it and then, I'll return it, amen."

Alli is secretly in love with town official Isaac (Nam), but neither can express themselves very well verbally because of the regime's limitations on vocabulary. The word beautiful, for example, is not approved for use. Can you imagine not being able to tell someone they are beautiful? As they try to express what they mean, their actual thoughts are projected around Andrew Cohen's appropriately dreary looking set.

At the same time, Orhan dreams of a world with more words and starts to wonder what would happen if the ban was overturned. I'll leave it right there as we've hit the major turning point in the play.

Director Colin Hovde does a wonderful job in staging Kruckemeyer's material. He utilizes back shadow lighting for the flashbacks and never jazzes up the script with any kind of stage trickery. The end result is one of the most honest stagings I've seen of anything in a long while.

Hovde's five member ensemble is right there with him.

Regina Aquino gives us two distinctly different characterizations as the mother who just wants to make a living (Alli) and then as an inquisitive student (Ella).

The same can be said for Tony Nam as the strict, government obeying official Isaac and the student Kiernan. A wonderful actor, he expertly portrays two very different characters.

I always enjoy watching Marcus Kyd onstage and his performance as the no-nonsense teacher is no exception to this rule. His characterization is cold and controlling, which is exactly what the character calls for.

Alina Collins Maldonado makes a good showing as a mysterious girl whose backstory gives us a glimpse into how the people of The City got to this point.

Last, but definitely not least, is Chris Lane's portrayal of Orhan. He carries the story in spades. His wanting for more words (and something better in general) leaves you entranced for the whole show.

I already mentioned that Andrew Cohen's dreary set is the perfect design for this show, but theatre is a collaborative effort and the rest of the production designs are equally spot-on.

Patrick Lord's projections show us what the people are really thinking, plus (and rightfully so) it is constantly raining in the dreary City thanks to Lord's handy work.

Mary Keegan's lighting matches the dreariness of the production concept as does Danielle Preston's costumes.

Sound Designer/Composer Matthew M. Nielson has done it again with a haunting soundscape, which conveys everything musically that Kruckemeyer is doing verbally in his script.

Where Words Once Were is a welcome addition to Kennedy Center's Theatre for Young Audiences canon of plays. It's meant for ages nine and up, which is a hard market to sell to, but this show held the audience at the performance I attended and I'm confident it will do the same for you. There is a lot of fluffy holiday fare being presented this time of the year, but for something a little more substantive, I highly suggest you take your family to see Where Words Once Were. It's got a great cast, wonderful production elements, and it will do what good theatre should do...leave you talking afterwards. That is what I call a full theatre experience.

Running Time: 65 minutes with no intermission.

Where Words Once Were runs through November 27th 2016 in the Family Theatre at the Kennedy Center which is located at 2700 F Street, NW Washington, DC. For tickets, click here.

With the gracious permission of the show's Sound Designer/Composer Matthew M. Nielson and the Kennedy Center, here is the main theme from Where Words Once Were entitled "Song of See Leaf Fall."

Music by Matthew M. Nielson. Lyrics by Finegan Kruckemeyer. Vocal by Regina Aquino.

Copyright 2016 by Curious Music Company (BMI)

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