KAIROS


What starts off a meet-cute romcom ends up something a good deal more thought-provoking and profound in Kairos, Lisa Sanaye Dring’s intriguing examination of love, life, and the search for eternal youth, now getting a terrifically acted East West Players’ World Premiere.

Not that romance is immediately in the air when Gina (Sylvia Kwan) and David (Gerard Joseph) get suddenly acquainted in a shopping mall parking lot just before Christmas, the result of a minor fender bender each insists is the other’s fault.

Then again, it wouldn’t be the first time in romcom history that instant antagonism has turned out to be the start of something considerably less combative.

Indeed, it doesn’t take but a minute or two for African-American David to begin winning over Asian-American Gina with lines like “I’m sorry that you’re grumpy, and I actually think that’s a very charming look on you.”

Or for Gina to respond to that with a suggestion they go for a drink once they’ve both “crawled out of this holiday hell hole,” which turns out to be New Year’s Eve, the ideal opportunity for, if not a first kiss at midnight, then at least a first hug.

And it only takes a few months for Gina to feel ready to introduce David to her sister, an event David would rather postpone if only to avoid mutual hurt should things not work out between them.

Events take an unexpected turn the day Gina brings up a revolutionary new medical procedure called Prometheus. “They give us a shot of something to freeze our cells so that they don’t age,” she informs him, provided they can get the procedure by quite literally winning the lottery.

There are some catches, however. Only healthy individuals between the ages of 25 and 34 (like David and Gina, both 33) are eligible. And since the procedure causes infertility, this means no children to carry on David and Gina’s genetic lines.

But still.  No aging means no death. No aging means immortality.

Which raises the question, if you could undergo a procedure that would guarantee you’d live forever, would you undergo it?

Playwright Dring’s gift for snappy patter ensures plenty of laughs early on, that is if you can catch everything David and Gina are saying. (I’ve rarely ever felt the need for closed captions while watching a play as I did seated in the next-to-last row of the orchestra section on opening night.)

Also, making David a classics professor allows Dring to weave in Prometheus’s promise of eternal life with ancient Greek deities like the titular Kairos, for whom immortality could be as much a curse as a blessing.

All of this adds up to a 72-minute dramedy likely to inspire as much introspection in its second half as it does laughter early on.

Jesca Prudencio directs with visual panache, finding ingenious ways to configure and reconfigure four straight back chairs on an otherwise bare stage, which scenic designer Yi-Chien Lee has topped with what appears to be a cross between gigantic tree roots and humongous upside-down antlers. (Striking to look at but what on earth are they supposed to represent?)

The equally engaging Kwan and Joseph are as delightful in early scenes as they are compelling when things turn dark, the onstage couple igniting palpable romantic-sexual sparks as things heat up between them.

Completing the cast, Ren Hanami and William L. Warren are effective in the play’s touching epilogue.

Chien’s scenic design adds some gorgeous visual touches along the way (including an eleventh-hour stunner), with impressive production design contributions by Ashphord Jacoway (costumes), Zane Wayneright (properties), Szu-Yun Wang (lighting), and Steven Leffue, whose original music adds to the magic even as his sound design doesn’t do Dring’s dialog any favors if you’re sitting far back.

Prudencio doubles as intimacy director. Tyree Marshall is assistant director. Brandon Hong Cheng is stage manager and Irene DH Lee is assistant stage manager. Zachary Bones understudies the role of David.

Not only is Lisa Sanaye Dring’s Kairos as provocative as it is entertaining, it’s a bona fide conversation starter. Expect to be thinking and talking about Kairos long after its fade to black.

East West Players, David Henry Hwang Theatre, 120 Judge John Aiso St., Los Angeles.
www.eastwestplayers.org

–Steven Stanley
April 7, 2024
Photos: Jenny Graham

Visit www.theatreinla.com/nowplayingrs.php for a review roundup of what’s now playing in theaters around Los Angeles.

 

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