“this random world” at north coast rep

Steven Dietz’s new play at North Coast Rep, This Random World, is based on one of my favorite storytelling techniques: showing the audience how specific characters are connected to each other’s lives without the characters themselves ever knowing about that connection.

I love that sense of understanding that there’s something deeper going on than those characters realize, and wanting to yell out at them, “Hey, that’s So and So!”

This Random World is all about intersecting lives, and it’s told mostly in two-person scenes. Let me see how I can tell you about this without giving anything away — because it’s those twists, and finding someone popping up in another scene, that makes the play so fascinating.

The show opens with brother and sister, Beth (Lisel Gorell-Getz) and Tim (Kevin Hafso Koppman). She’s 38, single, about to head off on a solo trip to Nepal and has written her own obituary — just in case. She lectures Tim about getting off the couch and about their elderly mom, who she thinks is merely existing rather than living.

Of course, it turns out that their mom (Anne Gee Byrd) is actually traveling the world with her caregiver, Bernadette (Yolanda Franklin) but doesn’t want them to know because she doesn’t want them to worry about her. “I refuse to be my kids’ best excuse” for not getting out and living their own lives, she says, which was really powerful to me.

Then there’s Bernadette’s sister (Ava Hill), and a couple who break up and move on in very different directions (Diana Irvine — one of my favorite performers in this show — and Patrick Zeller).

The performances are all excellent and you really get to know each one of them. That’s pretty impressive character development in an 85-minute play.

As always, North Coast Rep does a fantastic job with the sets, using sound and music in creative ways so you feel like you’re actually in these different environments. In fact, I laughed when the man behind me asked if it was raining outside and the women next to me put on their sweaters during a wintery scene.

Although I found the ending of This Random World unsatisfying and think the show’s structure works better than its story, I really enjoyed watching it and discovering the connections between the characters. And, ultimately, isn’t that what this random world we live in is all about?

All photos by Aaron Rumley