Photo by Mark Frohna
Theatre Gigante ‘Dust’
Michael Stebbins and Isabelle Kralj in Theatre Gigante's ‘Dust’
Theatre Gigante presents a sharply clever exploration into the concerns of two people in Dust. Isabelle Kralj and Michael Stebbins play a married couple who are deeply entrenched in a conversation that involves a major turning point in their lives. It’s a strikingly deep conversation on more than one level that plays out as a simple 70-minute conversation that rumbles across the stage in real time. Scene designer Carri Skoczek’s set serves as a cozy space for the conversation. Everything seems to be rendered as a black and white illustration.
As the play opens, Stebbins is tense. Kralj is curious. The husband has arrived home from work a bit earlier than usual. She asks him if he has lost his job. He tells her he’s won the lottery. They’ve won the lottery. This is news to her. He’s been spending money on tickets for a long time without telling her. They have much to discuss. Under the direction of Mark Anderson, Stebbins and Kralj thoughtfully navigate their way through a thought-provoking dialogue about money, work and the values resting at the heart of every human endeavor.
Hungarian playwright György Spiró has carefully crafted a single dialogue that covers an impressive amount of thematic ground for an hourlong conversation between two people. Anderson. Kralj and Stebbins deliver an impressively warm conversation between two characters who have known each other forever. Serious matters move around in the intellectual firmament shared between husband and wife as they consider the issues tied-up in the contemporary dream of winning the lottery that could turn into a nightmare in so many ways. A tiny, little stage on the east side serves as a gateway to so much more as Theatre Gigante continues to explore the largest ideas in the smallest of spaces.
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Theatre Gigante’s Dust continues through Nov. 3 at Kenilworth Studio 508, 1925 E. Kenilworth Place. For more information, visit theatregigante.org.
