the aves
Jihae Park
Berkeley Repertory Theatre
There is no doubt but that Marsha Ginsberg’s designed serene pond setting with its yellow lilies floating in slow circulation underneath a wooden boardwalk with its lone bench is nothing short of serenely mesmerizing — a scene made even more idyllic by the dreamlike songs of birds, crickets, and rain storms created by DJ Potts. But what is in doubt about Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s world premiere play, the aves, is whether Jihae Park’s script is quite ready yet for prime time. There are certainly a number of moments in its eighty minutes that are touching, heart-warming, and even humorous; but there is an overall incohesion of purpose and meaning and even genre of the total work that leaves one (or at least left me and my companion on opening night) at the end wondering, “Huh?”
We first see a couple — denoted in the program as Old Man (Bill Buell) and Old Woman (Mia Katigbak) — sitting peacefully on the bench, observing their surroundings of a sky’s clouds and a pond’s visitors of birds. Their conversation is full of long pauses and short exchanges that reflect a comfort and a mode of endearing teasing built during their fifty years together. A firm but smirky, “I hate birds … all birds have beady eyes” from her is in response to his evident adoration as he is entranced by the birds around them. He pushes her with some alternating sparkle and pouting to bet with him if there will be rain by nightfall, with her finally agreeing to a one-dollar wager. The tone is loving, gentle, poetic.
But the mood shifts slightly sad as there is something the couple wants to acquire that he has determined they cannot afford — at least not enough for both of them to have it. They hold hands with that realization, followed by his assuring her, “You’ve been the apple of my eye,” with her poking back with a sly, “Well, that’s something.”
As rain begins to fall (beautifully into the pond, by the way), subsequent scenes introduce a Young Woman (Laakan McHardy) and a Young Man (Daniel Croix). Various mixtures of the four principals occur in the short scenes over some time period of the following days and nights by the pond. While there are somewhat vague hints of who the two younger people may be and how they may or may not be related to the original couple, there is much left for the audience member to surmise what is really going on. Is this a kind of Twilight Zone episode? Is it a futuristic, ‘what-if-we-could-someday’ imagining? Is this a play about an older couple’s individual memories and dreamlike scape of things going on in their minds as death approaches? Or … ?
Maybe the point is for each audience member to create the script that fits for them. But what if no script can quite be invented that altogether ties together the scenes and the various couplings of characters in conversation? At least for me, there was too much a sense at the end of “That was pretty and somewhat interesting, but I am not walking away with any sort of lingering ‘ah-ha’ or ‘wow.’
What makes the play even more puzzling is the two-minute inclusion of a very young girl and her wayward ball for a reason well beyond me (Eloise Cheves and Róisín McCarthy alternating the role). And maybe with a touch of Shakespeare’s including the likes of gravediggers in a serious play, into this work is plopped a rather silly and cartoonish sequence with two, pecking pigeons. The amazing puppets created by Erik Sanko and Phantom Limb Company along the puppetry and voicing by actors Katigbakand Croix is fun to watch; but in the context of the play, it is weird and disjointing.
I always applaud any risk taken to bring a new work to the stage, but I think further development is needed for Jihae Park’s the aves to merit more productions beyond this initial outing at Berkeley Repertory Theatre.
Rating: 2.5 E
the aves continues through June 8, 2025, in an eighty-minute world premiere by Berkeley Repertory Theatre in Peet’s Theatre, 2025 Addison Street, Berkeley, California. Tickets are available online at https://www.berkeleyrep.org/ or by calling the Box Office Tuesday – Sunday, noon – 7 p.m. at 510-647-2949.
Photo Credits: Knud Adams
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