By Barbara McGuire
Daily Bruin Contributor
As a favorite movie of the ’80s, “The Neverending
Story” combined reality and fantasy with the main character
actually becoming a part of the magical story he was reading.
“Escher’s Hands,” a new play by Dawson Nichols,
experiments with these same ideas, only with a crack-90s twist
where the story combined with “reality” is one
containing a wannabe pimp and his upper class call girl who
mistakenly fall in love.
The eclectic “Escher’s Hands” shows at the
Lillian Theatre through July 2. Having been originally produce by
Seattle’s AHA! Theatre, this twisted tale was a nominee for
the New Play Award of the American Theatre Critics Association and
Nichols was a finalist for ATCA’s 1997 Elizabeth Osborne
Award for Emerging Playwrights.
“Escher’s Hands” starts out calm and comical,
following the interaction of two “yuppie” creative
writers Sandy and Gary, played by Bronwen Bonner-Davies and Keith
Allan respectively.
The two characters are collaborating to write a story for a
class they are taking together. Gary wishes to make the story
action packed and violent, while Sandy wants the characters to
internally examine their lives and emotions. From this interaction,
it appears as if Nichols has simply written a comedy, commenting on
the mishaps that occur between the sexes as a result of differing
motivations.
Then, about mid-way through the play, the audience is forced
onto the edge of their seats in anticipation. It seems as if the
arrogant yuppie writers have suddenly lost control of their own
story, the story that they were supposedly creating out of their
imaginations. The set, which is divided into two different arenas,
suddenly fuses. One area is occupied by Sandy and Gary, and the
other is occupied by the accidental pimp Steve, played by Stephen
Butchko and the call girl, Gabriella, played by Deirdre V.
Lyons.
Though at first the explanation for this twist of plot seems
far-fetched, more information is provided as the play continues
that helps smooth the sudden split. The audience soon realizes that
what is really important is not whether such a blurring between
dimensions seems improbable with the direction of the first half of
the script, but what such a blurring means.
With the exception of an unconvincing shoot-out scene in which
Gabriella shoots Steve, the scenes are delivered well by all the
actors. For the shoot-out scene, real looking guns were brandished.
A warning appears in the program that eardrum destroyingly loud
shots will be fired during the show.
The title of the play, “Escher’s Hands” is
used as a unique pun on artist M.C. Escher’s sketch titled
“Drawing Hands.” In the drawing two hands seamlessly
emerge from the paper, each drawing the others wrist. The drawing,
however, poses some interesting questions such as which hand is
drawing and which hand is being drawn. The puzzle is a hard one to
decipher.
This idea of unanswerable questions is maintained as the
underlying theme throughout the play. Who is really writing the
story, the yuppie writers who have no idea what they are talking
about and who create problems in their lives just because they
don’t have any real ones? Or is it the ruthless, shady call
girl who keeps doing things Sandy and Gary are not writing in the
script?
The issue of control lies underneath the story. Each character
strives for it throughout the play. Gary and Sandy vie for control
over who can decide whether their shared story will be an
action-thriller or a drama. Gabriella and Steve battle over how far
their unconventional relationship should go and who should be able
to set the rules?
Anything you may expect to happen does not.
“Escher’s Hands,” much like the drawing, holds
more than meets the eye; when examined further, there are many
things that lie beneath the surface.
THEATER: “Escher’s Hands” shows at the Lillian
Theatre through July 2. Special two for one ticket prices are
offered to UCLA students only.