The Grown-Up @ convergence-continuum

I've been embracing wonder and magic more lately as I move into my late 30's. Not the sweaty-man-pulling-rabbit-out-of-hat kind, but the returning-to-the-whimsy-of-youth sort - cloud watching, star gazing, allowing Lake Erie waves to move me to tears. Life is too hard and too short not to. The Grown-Up by Jordan Harrison, on stage now at convergence-continuum, is a magical show about just that - harnessing the power of imagination and storytelling to remind us that life is short, and we should all be advised to find the wonder where we can, when we can.  

The Grown-Up centers on Kai, a young boy who learns from his grandfather that the crystal doorknob in their home is actually a magical crystal from a mermaid figurehead on a pirate ship. As he uses the crystal doorknob in different doors, he hops further and further into his future, which may have been fun until he realizes he cannot go back - in a physical sense, anyway. Kai, who shares a name with the character from Hans Christian Anderson's story of The Snow Queen, retells this story in his late 30's to his boyfriend. In the story, a little boy named Kai finds a shard of a broken mirror that pierces his eye and makes him cruel and jaded and beholden to the Snow Queen. In the end, his sister saves him. I love little bits like this in plays - while it's a clear foreshadowing of action to come with in-show Kai's sister Anna Bell, it also seems to be an allegory for losing one's childlike sense of wonder, and how to get it back. In the show, Kai tumbles quickly through many stages of life until he reaches its end, trying as he goes to remember how he got there. What and who has he missed out on?

Watching this show is like watching children play make believe. Your disbelief must be suspended and your imagination must be ready to fill in the blanks. Director Amy Bistok keeps the action moving swiftly - clothes fly around as the actors quick change right on stage to switch characters fast, and the most unique con-con staging I've seen in a while will have your eyes darting around and heads on a swivel to keep an eye on everything, expertly managed by stage manager Kristen Boehnlein. The role of in-the-shadows narrator is passed between actors from scene to scene, sometimes highlighting the action, sometimes serving as a character's internal monologue, amplifying the theme of storytelling. And this small ensemble of 6, about 20 characters between them, do a wonderful job clarifying their varying roles, switching seamlessly between characters and narrators, and making the space come alive. 

Mike Frye especially gives an authentic display of the lead character, Kai, through the stages of life - age 10, at 27, 39, 55, and finally in his 80's. His vocal register and selected characteristics helped differentiate Kai at his various ages and I especially enjoyed Mike as Kai in his 80s - legless, blind, and vulnerable in his old age. Mike shows a great naturalness with his many scene partners and helps us care for Kai. Through the show, as Kai time-jumps across decades of his life, he remembers his conversation with his grandfather: "it was today. I was ten." 

The ensemble effectively brings to life a great variety of rich characters and move along the story well. Logan Andrews plays an endearing Grandpa - with his visible tattoos and gruff voice, you have a sense he was a military guy - and Katelyn Merold his Grandma counterpart, complete with knitting needles to match Logan's pipe and glasses. Logan switches to a red-sashed, grizzly pirate and then to Kai's patient wedding day husband, Barry. Katelyn becomes Rosie, a hilarious southern belle living in her past, then a "chesty mermaid" and ridiculous wedding guest, and finally Paula, Kai's brash but kind Salvadoran caretaker. Katelyn was predictably hilarious in each role. 

Natalie Lambo as Kai's sweet sister Anna Belle, has one of my favorite lines of the show, in relation to the game of hide-and-seek she and her brother play - "heartbreakingly, all the wants is to be found" - giving weight to her lifelong search for and dedication to her brother. Audience members with close-in-age siblings will recognize the relationship between the two. Natalie gave an absolutely gorgeous portrayal of older Anna Belle. Jack Matuszweski may have the most roles, starting out as fisherman and then cabin boy to Logan's pirate, to a dense waiter and a beauty pageant judge to a hilarious Ms. Griggs. He has his juiciest role as Kai's boyfriend Steven. David Munnell absolutely nails bitchy TV exec and over-the-top wedding planner, and is effective in his star studded jacket as award ceremony emcee, delivering one of the biggest-laugh lines: "everyone in this room has been touched by Kai Sheerwater." These final scenes were so reminiscent for me of one of my favorite movies, Big Fish. 

The set design by Clyde Simon adds effectively to the magic. A total of 5 doors are strewn throughout the space, with platforms of varying heights and open space in the center, creating what any child would find to be a very fun playspace. I especially loved the tall light over the dock Josef the Fisherman perched, complete with an ancient radio and a sailor's knot of thick rope, which would be used later as the space transformed into a crow's nest of a pirate ship. Simon's projections help set the imaginative scenes - a living room, an office, rolling ocean waves, a subtly changing distant horizon, and, importantly, the tumbling through time and space. Costuming by Amanda Rowe-Van Allen and sound by Austin Hopson both effectively set  the quickly changing scenes and characters. Lighting design by Sly Robakowski must have been a challenge for this set, but it sets the moods well and included a couple of welcome surprises - under-"bed" red LEDs to set a particular mood, bright blue hues during the time travel sequences. I especially enjoyed the use of a surprise fog machine to simulate the tumble into the ocean, complete with flashlight jelly fish - the sputtering fog creating a beautiful, mystical effect for a scene between Cabin Boy and the Mermaid. Talk about magic!

If we've already gone through too many doors, if we can't go back to being children physically, can we in our hearts? Though our paper gets crumpled every night as we endure pain, can we smooth it out every night until the wrinkles are gone? This delightful production, in the style of Big Fish, aims to help us discover the possibility for being innocent again - "the first, we are given, the second, we must fight for."