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'Wonder' takes you over the edge
No Strings Theatre Co. presents play about human relationships
- By Mary Gennrich, Las Cruces Bulletin [ July 8, 2005 ]

Ahoy matey's! It's time to break out your life vests. "Wonder of the World," opening tonight, Friday, July 8, at Black Box Theater, will take you on a comedic adventure of self-realization to Niagara Falls State Park. You will be asked to chose to embrace life or chose instead to step inside a barrel to plummet into the depths of the natural world wonder.

Written by David Lindsay-Abaire and directed by Ceil Herman, the play brings together six nutty characters - seven if you count the actress that plays six parts - who are all tied in some way to Niagara Falls - through love, loss, hope, betrayal, friendship, financial gain, a watch and a Costco-sized jar of peanut butter.

Cass (Natalya Seibel) wakes up one morning realizing that her husband, Kip (Joshua Rice), is not the man she married seven years ago. The night before she discovered Kip had a secret sexual fetish. The revelation did more than disgust Cass, it forced the spotlight on herself - it woke Cass up to the fact that she had no secrets, she was empty inside and she had stopped living out her dreams once she said "I do."

Cass leaves Kip after not a lot of explaining on her part and runs away from her problems, setting out on a journey to check off every last thing she's written down on her life "to do" list.

The immature jaunt takes her to Niagara Falls, where she befriends Lois (Julia Swatman), a depressed alcoholic who's going to commit suicide by going over the falls in a barrel, and Captain Mike (Shaun Hadfield), with whom Cass thinks she might be able to spend the rest of her life.

Cass is living it up and checking things off her list - things like wearing a big wig, wearing overalls and having a one-night stand with a sailor - until yarn-shop-business-owners-turned-private-investigators Glen (Ken Eastlack) and Karla (Carmen Call) show up at the park to find Cass for Kip.

The plot gets zany from here, folks, as you learn just how interconnected the characters are and how deep their feelings run for one another.

The play takes a stiff look at human relationships - friendship and coupledom - and the ever-powerful, ultimately destructive element of selfishness that pervades many of our interactions, almost always unbeknownst to the offender. And, the script is not short on humor, as you find yourself in the middle of what has to be one of the fruitiest group couple's therapy sessions ever imagined.

The play winds itself down to a dramatic, thought-provoking conclusion that makes you long for happier days.

Seibel does an excellent job in making you both like her character for her ditzy; wanderlust heart and hate her character for the raw, cold-heartedness she displays - she makes you want to shake her gently into reality or slap her across the face a couple of times.

Eastlack and Call are a hoot - their chemistry is that of a couple that's been there and done that and that's that. They spare no expense in back and forth wisecracks and jabs, but do so lovingly throughout the play

The shining star of the show is Wynne Broms, who plays an older woman with a receding hairline; a gnarled, terrified helicopter pilot; three different waitresses; and Janie, a crazy, yet effective couple's therapist parolee.

The production is aided by great set design and two mimes - played by Shay Lydick and Les Boyce - who add action to the scenes by doing such things as helping Cass get clothes off the hangers in her closet, running through the theater with mile-markers as Cass takes her journey to Niagara Falls and bringing you the motion of the ocean in the water scenes.

If you're looking for a cool escape this weekend - and some class-act entertainment - don't miss "Wonder of the World." It'll take you over the edge.

Seating

No seating plan has been posted.