“TOUCH” HAS COSMIC REACH

“TOUCH” HAS COSMIC REACH

Etcetera, the late-night performance arm of Live Theatre Workshop, is digging deeper into the human psyche with its production of Toni Press-Coffman’s “Touch,” presented at 10:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays through April 21. The play examines issues of loss and hope, set against a backdrop of astronomy and powerful celestial forces at work in the universe.

Life and the cosmos become metaphors for each other in the dialogue. We as individuals are like isolated stars, surrounded by millions of other stars but never able to leap that space and be together. We can stare, we can wonder what those other stars are like inside. But we will never know for sure.

The person we get to know most is Kyle (Christopher Johnson), an astronomer whose life literally is in the stars. Kyle is exactly the kind of nerdy guy you would expect an astronomer to be – so focused on his favorite subject he has no further interest in anything else.

Except his wife Zoe who is, wouldn’t you know it, an astrologer. She insists all those galactic movements manifest themselves in human behavior, as well.

You can just imagine the kind of fireside conversations these two would have over a glass of wine. But Kyle is smitten with Zoe. After a wonderful courtship in high school and college, followed by six years of marriage, Kyle is still delighted how he can always get a rise out of Zoe just by mentioning the Big Bang theory.

Then Zoe disappears on that horrible Thanksgiving night when she just went out to the 24-hour grocery for some whipping cream and never came back.

That’s when “Touch” begins, with Kyle trying to deal with Zoe’s abrupt disappearance. Always with the nagging possibility that, maybe, she hated her life with Kyle and just ran away.

That thought is too horrible for Kyle to even consider. He has long talks with Bennie (Ryan Butler) his best buddy from boyhood. There is also a bit of mental jousting with Zoe’s sister Serena (Emilee Foster) and an odd kind of self-destructive solace with Kathleen (Julia Matias), a cynical prostitute.

Much of the play is delivered as monologues spoken directly to the audience. This robs the drama of intimacy, but does add a philosophical distance to the feelings being discussed. Sort of like looking at a dissected body of a human being instead of watching as the body is being cut up.

Given Etcetera’s reputation for doing edgy and over-the-top productions that flaunt their bad taste, watching the body being cut up might have been a better choice.

But with Glen Coffman’s even-handed direction, “Touch” does bring a different kind of loss and oblique resolution to the loyal late-night audience at LTW. And it is a chance to feel really intelligent as you are leaving the theater.

Approximate running time is 90 minutes, with intermission.

“Touch” continues in 10:30 p.m. performances Fridays and Saturdays through April 21 at Live Theatre Workshop, 5317 E. Speedway Blvd. All tickets are $10 at the door. For reservations (520) 327-4242 or visit www.EtceteraLateNight.com.