In art as in life, there is captivating drama to be mined when mismatched strangers are thrown together by circumstance. So it is in Sophie McIntosh’s Road Kills currently in an Off-Off-Broadway run after a well-received series of readings. Owen (D.B. Milliken) runs a small company responsible for collecting the carcasses of animals who have been hit by drivers too distracted to notice or care about the deer crossing sign. He picks up extra money by taking on assistants who are working off their community service hours. The current pair of hands belongs to Jaki (Mia Sinclair Jenness) who was arrested for drunk driving. There is a spilling of guts along with the gut spills. Together each Saturday on relatively deserted stretches of highway in Wisconsin there is little to do but pry open each other’s long-closed emotional doors.
Though some of the details are telegraphed, for the most part McIntosh’s biting script keeps us unbalanced. With a title like Road Kills, it is unsurprising that the content has a high “ick” factor. Warnings can be found on the production website in two flavors: “broad strokes” and “gory details”. In the current space, everything is up close and deeply personal, but there is some sweetness mixed in with the ewwww.
Since I prefer my readers to have the experience of allowing a play to unfold, I will only say that Owen’s and Jaki’s peculiar relationships to animals goes beyond their handling of mangled body parts. Though their experiences as social outliers are dramatically different, the result is a similar inability to connect with humans in a traditionally healthy way. Their expression of sexuality would likely be found in the DSM-5. Protective reflexes are particularly askew in Jaki’s dealings with Neil and Miles, both portrayed by Michael Lepore. (That the two characters look similar is a serendipitous plot enhancement.)
As staged by director Nina Goodheart in the three-row venue, the meticulous attention to detail heightens the intimacy of the performance. We are seated at set designer Junran “Charlotte” Shi’s double yellow line where a dead fawn lies surrounded by dark red spots that are revealed to be frozen blood. Passed-its-peak shrubbery lines the upstage side of the road. Unlike most crews, stage manager Damayanti Wallace and team work silently in total darkness to set each scene. From the black, the prerecorded voice-over cast of 11 depict the events that lead up to an accident, with each incident being an escalation of the previous one. Lighting designer Paige Seber and sound designer Max Van add realistic sensory input. Sean Frank’s props range from tragic to amusing. While some audience members laughed though the disconcertion, it was the craftsmanship and care that I found comforting.
Produced by McIntosh and Goodheart’s Good Apples Collective alongside ryan duncan-ayala, the twisted ride of Road Kills continues through September 6. Runtime is approximately 85 minutes with no intermission. Performances take place on the second floor of the Paradise Factory, 64 East 4th Street in New York. Masks are strongly recommended and provided at the check-in desk. The A/C is an overachiever and a sweater will come in handy. Tickets begin at $18 and are available at https://www.goodapplescollective.com/road-kills.
The Unforgettable Line 