StageSceneLA

TORNADO

Three very different women comb the wreckage of a devastating natural disaster in Chris Cragin-Day’s Tornado, a largely engaging Actors Co-op World Premiere, but one that ties things up rather too abruptly to be entirely satisfying.

Rich Rose’s set makes it clear even before the play has started that the twister that’s swept through a small Oklahoma town has left nothing but rubble in its wake.

Among those hardest hit is local elementary schoolteacher Tanya (Jody Carlson), whose house has quite literally been flattened, much to the horror of volunteer aid worker Jade (Anna Salvini), arrived from a nearby college to help Tanya sort through the debris in hopes of finding photos, books, silverware, or anything else of sentimental value.

Completing Tornado’s trio of protagonists is high-powered corporate lawyer Becca (Susie K. McClean), who’s left Manhattan skyscrapers and the comfort of her New York apartment behind to join in the cleanup efforts.

It’s clear from the get-go that no three women could be more different.

Tanya has lived in Oklahoma her entire life and loved everything about it, from the wide-open spaces to the farmlands where “you can walk for hours on a road and never see another person.”

Jade, on the other hand, is a relative newcomer, having traveled from her native Tennessee to major in church music at Oklahoma Baptist University where she is a member of the school’s handbell choir. (Yes, there is indeed such a major and such a choir at OBU.)

Finally, Becca may the proverbial fish out of water, but from the get-go she sets herself up as the one in charge, repeatedly reminding Tanya and Jade to apply sunscreen and down half a bottle of water at thirty-minute intervals. (She’s even set her cellphone alarm as a half-hourly reminder.)

As the search progresses, turning up such items as a pair of spoons, a frying pan, a crockpot, and an iron napkin holder, Becca takes it upon herself to educate an eager-to-learn Jade on life in the Big Apple, where members of “the Holy Church of the Agnostic” regularly forego Sunday church for brunch.

What’s harder to pry out of the New Yorker is why she took it upon herself to travel 1500 miles to help complete strangers, and this mystery and others are just one reason Tornado works, at least most of the way through.

So are the trio’s discussions on such divisive topics as LGBTQ rights (and the morality of eating Chick-fil-A), and it’s a hoot to see Jade succumb to the lure of vodka having teetotaled her way through life thus far.

Still, as much as I welcome today’s trend towards shorter plays, Tornado’s eighty-minute running time feels rather too short, and the play’s sudden fade to black left me with a feeling of “That’s it?”

Director Linda Kerns elicits a particularly strong performance from brand-new Actors Co-op member Carlson, achingly raw end utterly real as a woman who’s survived enough hard times to remain unbroken by life’s latest hit.

Recent UCLA grad Salvini gives Jade a combination of radiance and grit that is just right for the part, as is her crystal-clear soprano.

Lastly, though McLean gives Becca her all, I found it hard to buy her in a role that cries out for a tougher, harder New York City edge, the kind that Kerry Washington gave Olivia Pope, and an absolute must in the cutthroat world of corporate law.

Properties designer Lori Berg and set builder Joel Daavid share credit with scenic designer Rose in replicating the devastation wreaked by an Oklahoma twister, and Keilani Gleave’s costumes, Derrick McDaniel’s lighting, and David B. Marling’s sound design are equally accomplished.

Tornado is produced by Kendall Lloyd. Hannah Cairo is stage manager.

With its PG-13 language, discussions of LGBTQ issues, and at least one character proudly on the spectrum between agnostic and atheist, Tornado is the kind of play Actors Co-op might have passed on in decades past.

That they’ve made it a part of their latest season reflects the Christian theater company’s willingness to challenge its subscriber base.

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