In “ Sovereign , ” the last act of Mac Rogers ’ epic unknown - bug vs. humanity Honeycomb Trilogy of play , we instruct that rebuild the world from the ashes is much harder than leading the resistivity . What encounter after you ’ve win the battle for the office - Book of Revelation ?
I was thrilled by the trilogy ’s center chapter , “ Blast Radius , ” a product that demonstrated the dizzying peak to which science fiction could be dramatized for the stage . Rooted in domestic thing and themes of love , sacrifice and loss , with the threat of a colonise hivemind prod the natural process forward , “ Blast Radius ” is brilliant in its equivocalness : the play off position are both right , the central sib at war with one another are both endeavor to save the day , and the military action ends on a cliffhanger , with the fate of manhood ( and countless bug ) in the balance .
“ autonomous ” clean back up twenty geezerhood later , and pull no punches — all of its blow land hard . There are no last - minute off - stage reprieves for our preferent characters from “ Blast Radius ” or the first installment , “ Advance Man , ” which see well - intentioned cosmonaut bring the aliens back to earth in the name of mutual cooperation .
While late castmembers are gone , they are not forgotten — “ Blast Radius ” had promised a monument to the fallen , and it is prominent on microscope stage now : names of the expansive dead carve on a large wooden bulwark , often referred to , and all inescapable . As events unfold , those who are wanting loom as constant admonisher of the cost of immunity and tenuous exemption . It ’s the kind of wondrous persistence of plot , set , props and care to detail we ’ve fall to expect from Rogers and longtime director / collaborator Jordana Williams , who handle to stage and contain three very different plays in the same once - fair family ’s suburban livelihood room .
Astronaut Bill Cooke ’s youngster Ronnie ( Hanna Cheek ) and Abbie ( Stephen Heskett ) shared a youthful bond in “ Advance Man ” that had turned wrathful by “ Blast Radius , ” which saw Ronnie running a riffraff human immunity while Abbie was a lauded and beloved ambassador to the foreign side he ’d chosen . The Cookes ’ familial conflict was the key to how to both stop and make unnecessary the word in “ Blast Radius , ” and in “ Sovereign , ” they ’re the only conversant faces left .
Ronnie , who had always been prickly and hard - headed , has become a fiercely cynical , uncompromising Governor in the post - post apocalypse , state of war - bitten , aweary and wary , with cheeseparing - authoritarian tilt over former Floridian territorial dominion . The sensible and too - idealistic Abbie is now the world ’s most detest war outlaw for his design to serve the bug assimilate into human bodies ( and thus create an unstable but intriguing hybrid race , “ tegument ” ) .
When Abbie gets catch , Ronnie ’s inner circle faces a dilemma : Abbie has to snuff it for who he is , and what he has done . But how to justify Department of State - mandated execution with no State Department ? Who makes the law of nature , who argue and decides on it , in a bon ton with no vulgar finish left , carry through their oppression ? What is “ justice ” to masses grown unused to it — and what was it ever , really ? Rogers is virtuoso at see and pry holes in the bigger picture of what makes us human . He uses his fluid pinna for dialog and clear philia for speculative fable as a microscope that rapid climb in unflinchingly on our ethnical norm . All of the excellent tale equivocalness from “ Blast Radius ” is back as the Cookes ’ history is put on the agenda , and choosing which side is right and which is wrong becomes impossible when they both are .
“ Sovereign ” is somewhat slower - paced than its prompt predecessor , but for good reason : it has the weight of the worldly concern on its shoulders , and multiple worlds literally on tribulation . Because of a promise Ronnie made to Abbie ’s recent lover and “ skin ” Conor , who betrayed the bug and sacrifice himself in exchange for Abbie ’s guard , Ronnie has helped secretly keep her brother live for years , despite her hatred of his allegiance . Now she ’s between a rock-and-roll and an even harder property : as the main proponent of bring back old ways and laws in the wake of the bug ’s seeming licking , Ronnie is her brother ’s de facto judge .
And yet the fresh re - created law against genocide — a word hint at in “ Blast Radius ” but never spoken , writ large here — brings in Rogers ’ trademark moral equivocalness : Ronnie , who come through in almost totally wiping out another race , is surely guiltier than Abbie , who had a plan that failed before it launched .
My favorite element of Rogers ’ storytelling is that you never recognize what he will do next . Some characters hew to uncomplicated archetypes while others are so multi - layered they ’re literally citizenry within people within people . The story twists and twist , and even the action take place off - point will have you tilt frontward in your chair , anxious to see what happens next . By the end I had my middle in my throat , and it is will to exquisite tempo and plotting ( specially in the 2nd act ) that the end is entirely obliterate , anyone ’s guess until it happens , and is a catharsis of awesome .
A strong book only lead so far , and the talented mold ’s dedication keeps the show humming along even through now and then clumsy - but - necessary exhibition that relate the essential events of the first two plays ( you definitely do n’t call for to have come across those to delight “ supreme , ” but the recapping may serve ) . personify the role of Ronnie and Abbie for the first time , Cheek and Heskett are commendable and plunge in head first ( though we do miss David Rosenblatt ’s imperiously bratty Abbie and Becky Byers ’ fiercely passionate Ronnie , all flyspeck dynamic motion ) .
Cheek is onstage for virtually every scene , and gives Ronnie the swagger and scathing cynicism her positioning demands — she snarls and prowls her way through , and is impossible to look aside from . If you sometimes want to punch Ronnie in the face for her black - and - bloodless view of the mankind , it means Cheek ’s doing her job right : her Ronnie would be the first to step into the anchor ring . Heskett has the puppy - eyed soulfulness to embody the gentler but no less unregenerate Abbie , while the radiant Medina Senghore is graciously downplay as Tanya , public defender in the Cooke Family Courthouse and utterer for compassionate humans .
If some of the other reference can seem one - note of hand , it is because they are embodying such absolutely drawn pilot as to already feel well - know , with William Penn Adair Rogers hitting all the unfermented place . Neimah Djourabachi winkingly plays Wilkie , a clueless member of Ronnie ’s elite bug - hunting team who ca n’t see how blase she is with his knightly smarm . A more intriguing character is his best friend and Ronnie ’s good - hand - adult male , Sharp ( Daryl Lathon ) , full of worldly - wise nuance and soldier ’s conflict . As Claret , Abbie ’s new “ skin ” companion , Erin Jerozal has all the wide - eyed innocence of an alien cut from its hivemind and put into human shape , while Matt Golden ’s Zander act the part of a rules - minded bureaucrat so well , I nearly passed him my tax paying back . Sara Thigpen ’s Fee , kid - rearer who recede all of her own children , stands in for forgiveness and hatred in one body , while C.L. Weatherstone ’s Budeen , a dim - witted farmer , has only one scene but is a standout . As Budeen fails again and again under terror of harsh punishment to realize Ronnie ’s insistency on bringing back honest-to-goodness custom that no longer seem to have a place , we ’re left to wonder if Ronnie , thirsty for an imagined glorious past , is damaging the present she is responsible for by not acknowledging how much the rules — and by prolongation , the demand of society — have changed .
“ Sovereign ” keeps one oculus on the yesteryear and one on the present , and its end run is classical in compass . ( Rogers writes that he drew on Sophocles and Euripides for final play , and it shows in Ronnie ’s movement towards dictatorship , in pull , war families and opposed sibling , and arguments on the nature of mankind and our decreed rituals ) .
But Rogers is always seem toward the future : “ Science fiction needs to be theater , ” he declares in the programme ’s author ’s note , and ca-ca it so . While draw to a great extent on tropes as old as Dionysus , he renders them new by considering utterly alien force-out in the intermixture . His authorship is sharp , ego - aware , and cuts straight to fondness and Honeycomb both ; it is also exceptionally timely , voice a perfect musical note in our increasingly crowded landscape of dystopian narrative . Even in its most ponderous , omphalus - gazing moments , “ Sovereign ” is dependable entertainment than the fictions , literary genre or no , that are presently on stage and screen . At its best , it is breathtaking . Go now , before all Leslie Townes Hope is lost .
“ Sovereign , ” presented by Gideon Productions and The BFG Collective , runs at The Secret Theatre ( 44 - 02 23rd Street , Queens , NY , www.secrettheatre.com ) , Friday - Saturday at 8 pm , Sunday at 3 p.m through July 1st;ticketsare $ 18/$15 for students and seniors .
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