1st Stage: How The Light Gets In

What do you get when you toss together, 1) A divorced travel writer who never travels and is about to discover that she has breast cancer, 2) A young tattoo artists who uses his art to save others, and in the end loses his brother to a drug overdose (the person he most wanted to save), 3) A teenage girl who lives beneath an oak tree in a Japanese garden having fled a home where she was sexually abused, and 4) a renowned Japanese architect who's creative muse died ten years ago along with his young bride?  

You might think a helluva depressing play.  But you'd be completely wrong.  "How the Light Gets In" is smart and sad, and written with a lot of tender care.  It's also funny, it finds the humor in the darkness.  It's redemptive, it demands of its characters more than they realized they were able to give.  And it ends on note of hope.  Not a grand display of fireworks and an epic poem, but a soft landing, a paper crane floating on a pond, a haiku.  

Three of the cast members were familiar to me.  Two from shows earlier in the season, Jacob Yeh played the sheriff's deputy in "The Rainmaker," and he is in the role of Haruki Sakamoto, the architect from Tokyo who has been commissioned to design a tea house for the Japanese Garden, and is haunted by the sorrow of wife's death from breast cancer 10 years before.  Joel Ashur just weeks ago was featured in Mosaic Theatre's "Bars and Measures".  Now he is Tommy Z tattoo artist with a heart big enough for all of the wounded people he seeks to help, but not big enough to comprehend the death of his brother. Both actors were wonderful in their roles, however, the greater accolades go the women.

The program stated that Madeleine Regina was making her professional acting debut with this role, and you could have fooled me.  She was a joy to watch inhabit the world of this broken teen as slowly she found her way into the lives of people she could trust.  She brought everything to the role and it was as much the way she told Kat's story with her body as it was the way she owned the playwright's dialogue.  Finally, Tonya Beckman as Grace Wheeler was simply perfect.  From the moment she entered the stage, I didn't see an actor, I saw Grace Wheeler.  I was compelled to laugh with Grace Wheeler, to stress with Grace Wheeler, and to weep with Grace Wheeler.  Thinking back on everything I've seen this season, I honestly believe this performance is worth a Helen Hayes nomination (the local version of the Tony's).  

The other stand-out aspect of this production was the amazing set designed by Kathryn Kawecki.  She brings to life a Japanese Garden with elements that easily become a tattoo parlor, a hospital waiting room, Grace's apartment, a freeway overpass, without moving a single pebble or blade of grass.  The meandering pond is filled with water.  Water to float a paper boat on.  Water to wade in on your way to a brighter future.

This is a play that I honestly am tempted to go back and see again.  It is extended through March 26.  If you live in the DMV, seriously consider going.  I promise you won't regret it.

Kat Lane (Madeleine Regina) watching the world from a safe distance.

Grace Wheeler (Tonya Beckman) and Haruki Sakamoto (Jacob Yeh) meeting in the Japanese Garden, where Grace volunteers as a docent.

Tommy Z (Joel Ashur)