by Tracey Paleo~

The wind is blowing ferociously.  Sounds of whales can be heard within and without.  A storm is coming and not just across a frozen land but for two people who are about to face their personal fears about connection.

A distraught young woman bursts into a remote cabin in the wilds of Alaska, dressed in full bridal regalia, her hands gnarled and frozen to the bone.  She has fled her impending marriage.  She encounters a lonely figure sleeping under a heap of blankets as a blizzard rages outside.  While she begs for help, drinks, eats, rants about her car and finally passes out, the figure, a reclusive young man on temporary leave as a cook on an oil rig, awakens to find a wild creature of a woman in a torn gown and paper shoes that captivate and torture him.  Thus begins the Los Angeles premiere of Brilliant Traces at the Lounge 2 Theatre in Hollywood, astutely directed by John Hindman, a story where, thrown together in the confines of the snowbound cabin, two strangers share their reasons for fleeing the world they knew only to find the desperation, loneliness and longing they both have in common.

Watching this play I often felt like I was back in acting school working out my inner life in an intense Meisner class filled with repetition exercises in order to get me to the point of an emotional moment.  It is a long “beat around the bush” about how attracted to one another they really are.  And we the audience have to suffer every volley throughout, denied a breather or an intermission.  But, as life is life and happens this way sometimes, we the audience give the writer and the play the benefit of our suspension of disbelief.  Because, sure, sometimes people certainly must act this way, think this way, feel this way, talk this way.

Cindy Lou Johnson’s piece is demanding for any actor to play with its deeply scarred emotional threads, intense outbursts, violent denials, shut downs, fights against personal vulnerability for the characters and all around psycho-dramatic dialog.  Not to mention that it takes a strenuously long time for either character to even begin to reveal anything at all about themselves to one another.

For the most part, Andy Wagner (Henry) brilliantly overcomes all the traps and gives a downright honest portrayal of a man at the precipice, terrified of succumbing to his own emotions and the consequences they bring and yet desperately wanting everything else that comes along with taking the risk.  Mr. Wagner is appealing, un-strained and never overshoots the intention.  His performance keeps this play in motion to the finale.

Tessa Ferrer (Rosannah) is a well trained actress with an intense inner life, body work, character development, excellent timing and great delivery.  It is clear throughout every inch of this play that she is deeply invested.  From the moment she enters the stage — the cabin — Ms. Ferrer is a power house of frenetic energy dynamically leaping and pushing through each word and phrase as she fights, in her desperate state, to overcome frostbite and shock.  But as the play goes on it becomes difficult for Ms. Ferrer to hold us to the story as, with the exception of some fleeting comical inspirations, she never leaves this very heavy, introspective, place.  The audience doesn’t get a break from her inner life and the revelations toward the very end fall a wee bit flat.

Both actors however, roll out intense performances as the wonderfully talented individuals they are. They do manage to reveal a deep, thought-provoking, and often painful look into what separates us and ultimately what brings us together, just not enough to always deeply touch the audience at the heart level.

100% on the mark was the set design and props.  Absolutely outstanding accolades go to Zachary B. Guiler (Set Designer) and Tamara Becker (Props) for bringing to life an impressively, functional and believable interior of a little cabin in the middle of Alaska under siege from a ‘white out.’  Same for costumes and everything else that inventively rounded out this show.

Brilliant Traces is preformed Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, and Sundays at 2:30pm through March 11, 2012

The Lounge 2 Theatre is located at 6201 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles, CA  90038

Reservations online at http://billianttracesplay.com