With the sci-fi adventure show Natalie Ryan and the Edge of Eternity playwrights Vince Figueroa and Beth Lewinski have written another script that is as in love with the feel of a summer blockbuster action film as it is with science fiction. The premise and pacing of the third part of the Natalie Ryan series are very much in synch with the feel of a summer blockbuster.
True, the script runs into many of the same problems that summer blockbusters do . . . most notably the problem of trying to tell too much story in too small a frame of time. As there are plot elements to wrap-up at the end of the trilogy, this is understandable. Actually, for a script that had to cover as much story as it does, The Edge of Eternity holds a surprising range of quiet and subtle moments.
The obvious issue with the stage to screen sic-fi action comparison is the fact that indie theatre like this is done on a comparatively small budget. Modern, big budget sci-fi action films cost some $200 million to produce. On a budget that wouldn't even pay for a fraction of a single day of catering on a Hollywood action film, Figueroa and Lewinski put together a story that in many of the most important ways is every bit as entertaining as one of those $200 million Hollywood monsters.
I realize I'm in the minority here: most people go to see big sci-fi action films for the costuming, set, production design . . . the special effects. Things blow-up and there are extended fight scenes. Kind of cool the first few dozen times you see them but after a while, it gets repetitious.
Stay on top of the news of the day
Subscribe to our free, daily e-newsletter to get Milwaukee's latest local news, restaurants, music, arts and entertainment and events delivered right to your inbox every weekday, plus a bonus Week in Review email on Saturdays.
Ideally, there's more there than the action. Ideally, those shiny, expensive elements are glossy packaging for entertaining social interaction. I like the dialogue and interpersonal elements of big action films a lot better than the action itself. When it's done well, two people sharing a few brief moments of dialogue before the world almost ends can be a lot of fun. But you don't need $200 million worth of budget to deliver those moments. Figueroa and Lewniski know this and they allow some really talented actors to explore some really great moments like this.
At it's best, this final chapter in the Natalie Ryan trilogy is really, really fun because of those moments. Figueroa and Lewinski write a scene involving a couple sharing their first kiss before a moment that might mean their death. Elsewhere in the script, a couple of characters decide that the man who might destroy the universe to create a new one really should have a name. They discus what that might be. Moments like that are a lot of fun. OVer-the-top intensity and quirkiness without compromising fun. It's difficult to get quite that combination anywhere other than commercial grade science-fiction action. And there's no reason such moments have to be confined to glowing screens.
One of my favorite scenes (pictured above) features Natalie Ryan (Anna Wolfe) and Agent Lars (Jake Brockmann.)They've just met. She knows that he's destined to be not only her husband, but the father of her daughter. (Her daughter told her as much.) She knows this but he doesn't. They share an awkward moment together in the apartment of a conspicuously missing Albert Einstein. It's one of the more clever and complicated bits of silence that I think I've ever seen ontage. The Edge of Eternity has so many moments like the awkward span of silence between Ryan and Lars on the couch at Einstein's. More than a few such moments happen between DeWolff (who plays Ryan's daughter) and Silverstein (who plays Einstein.) You don't get moments like that in traditional theatre. It's fun to see them in sci-fi action films, but they tend to get drowned-out by all of that tedious CGI action. (Again--probably in the minority here, but I don't like sci-fi action movies for the action or the special effects...) It's really cool to see those sort of moments stripped of all the shiny flashiness that Hollywood producers seem so in love with. Any sort of quirkiness always seems to play so much better on the live stage when it's done well than it does on a glowing screen. Figueroa and Lewinski do this sort of quirkiness very well. It's not for everybody, but it would appeal to a lot more people than those who are destined to see it onstage.
Natalie Ryan and the Edge of Eternity runs through August 25th at the Underground Collaborative on 161 West Wisconsin Avenue. For ticket reservations, visit BrownPaperTickets.com
