It’s hard to hear an uncomfortable truth, and even harder to escape it once you’ve committed to see a play that isn’t afraid to slap you in the face with it.
As the 10 anniversary of 9/11 draws near, the Auxiliary Dog Theatre’s “Recent Tragic Events,” by Craig Wright, confronts some of the scariest questions from that day, with a simple honesty that moves you to listen.
The fully realized, light-hearted production earns the moments when it confronts you with notions of free will versus destiny. A “stage manager” delivers a prologue that asks for a volunteer to flip a coin, then proclaims the coin’s result will affect the show. Nothing is certain.
The play begins with Waverly and Andrew on a blind date the day after 9/11. Instead of using the tragedy to capitalize on people’s emotions, like the Robert Pattinson film “Remember Me,” “Recent Tragic Events” explores how this historical, political and national tragedy affected average citizens.
Waverly hasn’t heard from her twin sister in New York since the towers fell. Andrew may know something about it; whether this is fate or coincidence is unclear.
When Andrew, along with his neighbor, his lady-friend and a puppet meant to represent Joyce Carol Oates all converge at Waverly’s apartment, the play moves into comedic hyper-drive. The hilarity is grounded in each character’s struggle to grasp the enormity of a tragedy with which none of them quite know how to grapple.
The play goes beyond dramatizing how 9/11 affected people. The show adeptly flaunts its wicked humor, but at the same time confronts the idea of fate versus free will. When tragedy is an ever-present possibility, the play asks the audience which is more terrifying: inevitable chaos, or the chaos we will?
A play attempting to deal with such lofty philosophical questions is daunting, but the Aux Dog’s five actors easily establish empathy with the audience.
