There is an intriguing concept underpinning the Waltzing Mechanics’ latest outing, “Line One,” which originated with John Kaufmann at Seattle’s Annex Theatre 10 years ago. But at least on the preview night I attended, it didn’t jell into an evening of theater as compelling as the company’s own documentary theater pieces, such as the long-running “El Stories.”
The idea is that the cast is outfitted with cellphones and headsets. While each evening will be built around a different theme, the cast receives calls and prompts from outside callers, directed through a control booth hidden behind a scrim onstage. The questions pop up on another scrim. Some cast members are sent out on scavenger hunts or field trips during the show, while a castmate transmits their impressions from the outside to those of us in the theater. The voices of those onstage go in and out, so it’s not a strictly linear narrative.
I suspect part of the problem with the show the night I saw it was the theme — “Getting Away From It All” — mostly involved anecdotes about camping. And if you’ve ever sat through someone’s long-winded account of their camping trip, you know how dull that can be. (I will admit that I’m not a camper myself, but there are only so many ways to wax rhapsodic about the great outdoors before I start feeling like Clark Griswold at the Grand Canyon in “National Lampoon’s Vacation.”)
It all got a bit too literal — after all, there are many ways of “getting away from it all” that don’t have to involve removing oneself into the woods. That came through most clearly — and frustratingly — as Wyatt Weber related the offstage adventures of Warren Swartwout, who was sent to scout REI’s wares. It was more interesting picturing what Swartwout was seeing over on Halsted Street and his imagining what he could do with all that gear (his riff on “igloo bricks” alone was hilarious) than hearing the cast onstage talk about being outdoors and how they just can’t wait to share their love of nature with their kids and grandkids.
The exception was Claire Reinhart, whose too-short stories about going to Nepal (prompted by a question about the farthest she’d ever traveled) and a trip to Montana a few years ago after battling cancer really should have got a lot more stage time. One hopes that, as the run progresses, the on-site directing team in the control booth (Zack Florent, Keely Leonard and Thomas Murray) can find ways to help the most interesting stories stay on the tracks.
1.5 STARS
Through Dec. 14, Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave., $25 at 773-404-7336 or waltzingmechanics.org
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