MEMORY LANE IS A DESERT ROAD


A daughter sifts through her war correspondent father’s photos to better understand his life and her own in Nabra Nelson and Michael B. Nelson’s autobiographical gem Memory Lane Is A Desert Road, a World Premiere drama strikingly staged and terrifically performed by the young artists of Eight Ball Theatre.

 A phone call from Dad Mark (Wiley Sutton), off on yet another overseas assignment, is precisely the impetus Fatima (Neema Adeni) needs in an effort to figure out what her next step in life should be, and so here she is in the family garage surrounded by dozens upon dozens of photos snapped in assorted war zones across the globe.

Lebanon, Rhodesia, Eritrea, Algeria, the Gulf… If a country had any combination of wars, famines, and/or blood-and-gore, Mark has been there, whether as a younger iteration of his all-American self (Jack Cain) or as the man he is today, with side trips to Egypt, where he met and fell in love with “Nubian princess” Sabila (Kennedy Niyah Hill as her younger self and Sydnée Grant as she is today); Malaysia, where Fatima spent some of her teen years; and L.A., where Dad found himself briefly given a local assignment that included photographing Brad Pitt and George Clooney at the Oscars and an afternoon at Dodger Stadium where Fatima wolfed down a pork-packed Dodger dog, much to her Muslim mother’s horrified dismay.

It doesn’t help in Fatima’s trip down memory lane that the captions on the reverse side of Dad’s photos are vague at best, nor does it reassure her that even now, well into his fifties, he’s got yet another overseas project planned, a documentary that will have him revisiting the places where he and his longtime bestie George (Ash Maeda) spent time covering various armed conflicts, or as Fatima puts it, “just going back into war zones.”

Will Mark and Fatima ever be able to reconnect for any significant length of time? Will Fatima manage to make sense of her life up until now? And what should her next step be moving forward?

All of this makes for a fascinating tale even on paper, but even more so when staged with abundant ingenuity by Sarah Showich and performed by a talented cast of recent USC theater grads (and a guest artist or two) in a production blessed by the most imaginative of scenic, projection, costume, lighting, and sound designs.

Adeni reveals equal parts star quality, depth, and dramatic chops in a role that has her never leaving the Zephyr Theatre stage. (She’s also got a voice that’s made for audio book narration.)

Sutton and Grant do terrific work too as Fatima’s loving parents. (Grant’s frustration with her daughter’s inability to understand Nubian sayings is a delightful touch that I’m guessing a lot of first-generationers will recognize.)

Romantic-lead-ready Cain is a definite find, and Tunde Abu (as Young Mark’s Egyptian friend Yasser), Elyse Ahmad (as Nadine, a young woman from Mark’s past), Hill, and Maeda prove themselves the ablest of multi-taskers in assorted cameo roles that also have them tasked with rearranging design elements as we move from locale to locale to locale.

Kate Schaaf’s spiffy brick-wall-backed set doubles as the screen onto which she has projected actual shots taken by war correspondent-turned-playwright Nelson, the same ones that litter the Zephyr Theatre floor and are just one example of the myriad garage-stored props provided by Will Domke.

Morgan Whittam’s costumes, Cristo Montañez’s lighting, and Gabe Finn’s sound add even more to an all-around accomplished production design, and the graceful, evocative movements choreographer Arjun Kochhar has integrated into a couple of Act Two sequences make the production even more memorable.

Jenna Hamdan is assistant director. Azad Namazie is dramaturg. Lili Langh Ignon is stage manager and Henry Parker-Elder is assistant stage manager. Devin Harris is technical director. Bianca Akbiyik is associate producer.

As specific as it is to their own shared lives, Nabra Nelson and Michael B. Nelson’s Memory Lane Is A Desert Road is likely to resonate with anyone who’s ever wished to know more about a parent’s past or wondered about their own life path ahead. It’s also a fabulous introduction to a company of actors and creatives with major careers ahead.

Zephyr Theatre, 7456 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles. Through April 13. Friday and Saturday at 8:00. Sunday at 2:00.
www.eightballtheatre.org

–Steven Stanley
April 5, 2025

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

 

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