The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe
My thoughts on The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe or…it’s everyone’s journey.
I went to Search knowing nothing about it other than Jane Wagner wrote it and Lily Tomlin starred in it on Broadway. I expected it to be an 80-90 minute comedy monologue. Was I ever wrong. It is a monologue of sorts, it is very funny in places, but it is far from being a show that you go to, have a few laughs, and forget.
Search is an almost two hour play that explores many aspects of the human condition through the stories of different characters. All those characters just happen to be played by one brilliant actor, Marianne Galloway. I have seen and enjoyed many one person shows, but I have never seen a show where a single performer portrays so many diverse characters.
Initially, we are introduced to Trudy, a bag lady. She is our host and appears throughout the evening. Galloway’s Trudy is a cross between Annie Lennox and a demented pixie and often converses with her invisible alien friends who are here observing humanity. Trudy is at once “alien”ating and endearing.
Galloway changes age, gender, and socioeconomic status repeatedly without ever changing out of a t-shirt and jeans. She becomes a 15-year-old punk performance artist and both of her grandparents, two prostitutes, a male bodybuilder, a bored, wealthy housewife who lost the tip of her finger in a Cuisinart accident, three feminist female friends, and others. It’s difficult to explain how amazing this is and how absorbing it all is. To watch Galloway carry on a conversation between three characters at once is one of the most remarkable feats I have seen on stage.
I can only think the stars aligned the day that Director Ashley Puckett Gonzales and Marianne Galloway got together for this production as it appears to be the perfect syncing of director and actor. Gonzales has real gift for staging and knowing just when to let a scene end or let it linger for a moment, and she is aided by excellent lighting by Bryant Yeager and sound by Rebecca McDonald and Kae Styron’s terrific set with its realistically rendered partial brick wall and cement stoop.
There are several dated cultural references from the 70’s and 80’s in the play. They may send theatergoers in their twenties to Google. (Did pantyhose really used to come in egg shaped containers?) These references only momentarily distract.
I very much admire the structure of Wagner’s play that presents the many disparate characters in short scenes and then slowly reveals how they are interconnected. And that is what the play is all about, the driving human need to connect. The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe is a playful, poignant, and powerful work. As Trudy implores us to do at the end of the play, maybe we should stop worrying about the meaning of life and appreciate the mystery of life instead.
You have just a couple chances left to see this phenomenal production at the WaterTower Theatre. As we were leaving the theatre Wednesday night my companion said to me, “I feel like we just saw something very special.” I agree. Consider Search the first gift of the season courtesy of Galloway and Gonzales. And as a bonus you are going to learn the difference between soup and art! Prepare for goosebumps.