'The Stroke Scriptures' Looks At Lives In Crisis

*Editor's note: An earlier version of this article and a photo caption incorrectly spelled the last name of Gadi Abramowitz. They have been updated to reflect the correct spelling.

What do two young men high on hallucinogenic mushrooms, a homeless veteran with a couple of wires crossed, a missing husband and a famous poet who has suffered a stroke have in common? They are the main characters and stories at the heart of The Stroke Scriptures, winner of the A.E. Hotchner Playwriting Competition.

The Stroke Scriptures, by Washington University senior Chris Kammerer, received its world premier Thursday night in the A. E. Hotchner Studio Theatre. Hotchner is an alumnus of the school, a novelist, a poet and a playwright best known for his book, Papa Hemingway, which details his long friendship with the famous writer Ernest Hemingway. King of the Hill, made into a film in 1993, is Hotchner's memoir of growing in St. Louis. In the competition, one student's work is selected for a full stage production.

As theater of the absurd, The Stroke Scriptures utilizes multiple, seemingly unrelated story lines to create an understanding of life, as nonsensical—or as absurd—as that life may seem. Rather than being plot-driven, the play is conceptual. At its conclusion, the audience gets to see how the stories relate to each other, whether directly or indirectly.

As the play opens, Jeff and Pat (played well and with comedic skill by Tim Taylor and Pete Winfrey, respectively) are on their way to a museum. Ironically, this scene in which the characters are on hallucinogens is the most realistic of the play. When veteran Edward—played wonderfully by Gadi Abramowitz*—blusters onto the train, the scene is infused with boundless energy and humor.

Next we meet Martha Fowler (played by Sarah Wagener) whose husband has gone missing. She remains strangely detached when questioned by police officers (played by Alex Kahn and James Boyce). Jump to Steve and Ron in a hospital waiting room as Ron frets about his wife, who has gone into premature labor. He can't get answers from the staff, and the endless succession of doctors entering, removing and dropping their bloody operating gowns on the floor is a nice touch, frustrating and cruel as it can be for a man seeking information about his wife's well-being.

Next we meet famous poet Richard Green, played with skill by Matthew Rosenthal. Green has had a stroke, and so the master of words struggles to speak at all. Rosenthal's performance is spot on. I can understand the intellectual basis of creating this character as a victim of stroke. All the characters are searching for something, and in a crisis that they can barely understand, much less put into words. Green understands well what he wants to say but can't say it. He struggles to get the words out. Theatrically, this slows down the play, which primarily consists of dialogue and features little action.

The cast is rounded out by Mitch Eagles, Selena Lane, Eli Keehn and Will Jacobs, who is appropriately dazed and confused in the role of the missing husband. The spare set design by Sean Savoie consists of a large, backless shelving unit peppered with objects that help set scenes when they are lit alternately by lighting designer Scott Griffith. The effective sound design is by Erica Gould and the perfect costuming by Carly Oshima.

Director William Whitaker has done a good job of bringing the various plots to the forefront, as much as the nature of the script allows. He makes sense of  the disparate elements that otherwise could leave the audience in a state of confusion. Although the pacing is slow at times, Whitaker has taken a young, inexperienced cast and induced some good performances.

The playwright Kammerer is to be congratulated. Theater of the absurd is difficult to pull off, and he succeeds on many levels with writing that is both meaningful and witty. At times, all people have felt as if they were alone and nothing made sense, and Kammerer shows us we are not alone. Others have been there before, and more will come after. Just work throught it, and it all comes together in the end.