“Annnnnnnnd spacejump…”  

Words that inspire joy in some and terror in others.  

The theatre game, the improvisation, the group share – things that every actor knows well. And not just actors, these days creative drama exercises pervade schools, corporate roleplay boardrooms, the psychologist’s suite.  

I’ve participated in and supervised many a theatre game and in them, I’ve seen some glorious moments of connection fire between two previously nervous players but some very awkward moments of collapse from even the best of practitioners.  

Annie Baker is a rare and beautiful playwright who thrives when things are at their most awkward, held and conflicted. Each phrase she writes is the tip of a large emotional iceberg but the silences and interior monologues she encourages between those phrases reveal truths just as epic.  

Director Dean Bryant knows a thing or two about using a drama exercise to unlock a rehearsal room so it’s fitting that he wanted to explore Baker’s play and these beautiful, flawed, yearning characters who are searching for connection and for themselves by pretending to be a tree or a baseball glove. He’s corralled a beautiful and expert cast and team to reveal them in all their tender and messy humanity.   

The play contains a moment where two characters imagine their future selves and meet. I’ve used this exercise often, particularly with very young students who don’t yet know cynicism and those conversations, full of hope and possibility, have sometimes made me reach for a tissue to hide a teacher’s tears. You may well feel a similar urge when you watch this fine production.  

And, as I write this from a city apartment at night, I am literally looking into an office block where I can see some middle-aged workers in a circle, lit by fluorescent light, playing a theatre game called Zip where players send a clap to each other and then around the circle. Who knows why, who knows who they are. Maybe it’s a team building exercise, maybe it’s a therapy session, maybe they are budding actors themselves. But they’re part of a world of theatre game lovers who are searching for a way to connect. Like many before them, they’re all looking for a campfire where they can listen and where they can be heard. Here’s to the theatre, here’s to the campfire and here’s to something being lit in your heart when you watch this remarkable play and production.