Photo by Chaz D. Photography
If you’re in the mood for a little joy, meet Kayland Jordan.
From the moment she pops up and says “Hi!” to the audience at the start of Doug Robinson’s The Figs, we’re hooked. Her loose-limbed, easy charisma is irresistible, which is good, because she’s our Storyteller.
Her candor (or rather Robinson’s) is disarming. She’s not going to hold a mirror up to nature or mine any deep truths, she explains. She’s simply here to tell us a story.
“A story about figs.”
Then, with a snap of her fingers, we’re off into the wildly imaginative world of a writer who puts the “play” in “playwright.”
The Figs at American Stage
Photo by Chaz D. Photography
The Figs first came to American Stage as a staged reading in the company’s 2023 Lift Every Voice New Play Festival. A yearlong development process between Robinson and Producing Artistic Director Helen R. Murray culminated in this world premiere, directed by Murray. The collaboration is fruitful (no pun intended) because the production is in every respect as inventive as the script.
“This play is built on doubling, tripling, and maybe even quadrupling,” said Robinson. “Allow this play to explore gender. King is a title that any person can have.”
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Accordingly, Murray assembled a quicksilver seven-member cast to play 26 characters. On Kristen Morgan’s versatile set, the actors manipulate ceiling-to-floor multi-colored ribbons (evocatively lit by David Arterberry) to convey everything from deep woods to palatial draperies.
Johnna Presby’s costumes are a delight — not only her royal garb and peasant patchwork, but outfits such as the talking fish (with ruffles for scales) and the demon in a getup that screams Jean Paul Gaultier. Special kudos to the multiple costume changes for the Storyteller, who steps into the action in various roles, adding and removing items as needed (sometimes in a hilariously big hurry).
Greedy for Figs
Photo by Chaz D. Photography
Back to those figs. As the Storyteller explains, they are the particular obsession of a ravenous king. His own kingdom can’t grow them, so he invades and pillages his fig-rich neighbors. On the advice of a courtier, he stops slaughtering innocents. But when the palace runs out of figs again, he decides to try another tack. He’ll marry off his daughter, Princess Sadie, to the first fig farmer who can provide him with a steady supply.
Alas, Sadie is in love with the local innkeeper, Lorna. The squabbling fig farmers Jin and Jod let greed get in the way of success. Their kinder, wiser brother June is left to find a way to deliver the figs and woo the princess. She sets him three seemingly impossible tasks. Luckily, his pet swan (a rod puppet artfully operated by the actor) accompanies him everywhere.
Photo by Chaz D. Photography
The cast has a blast in this fanciful playground. As the king, Rita Cole gorges on figs and revenge with stylish swagger. Charlene Hong White embodies both the princess’ wonkish sense of duty and her unbridled passion for Lorna, played with an aura of sad wisdom by Natalya Lynette Rathnam. Em Whitforth is wonderfully wide-eyed and open-hearted as June.
Jemier Jenkins and Eric Olson are perfectly matched and unapologetically profane as Jin and Jod. Jenkins almost walked off with the show as that talking, much-ruffled fish. And Jordan keeps it all together with her versatility (she’s also the king’s attendant, a magical tinker, a sassy messenger, the princess’ kindly nurse, and more).
A Story Within A Story
Photo by Chaz D. Photography
The play runs a bit long. Robinson may have stuffed his Figs with too many stories. There’s a story-within-a-story, for instance, enacted by a motley crew of patrons and rod puppets at Lorna’s inn, and an interlude in which June may or may not be reuniting with his family. But I’d hesitate to say that either should be cut, since the innkeeper’s story is enchanting and the family “reunion” is touching and funny.
Does the Storyteller’s fairy tale accidentally-on-purpose hold up a mirror to our natures and leave us with some deep truths? I’m inclined to say yes. Robinson deals not only with kings, princesses, and heroic quests, but with love and death, heaven, and hell, albeit in surprising and often funny turns of the plot. And there are truths that resonate.
But figs to interpretation.
“If there is one thing I know for certain,” the Storyteller said. “It’s that stories are needed.”
And right now The Figs may be just the story we need.
See The Figs
The Figs, American Stage, 163 Third St. N., St. Petersburg. Through Aug. 4: Wed.-Thurs., 7 p.m.; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; and Sat.-Sun., 2 p.m. $53-55. 727-823-7529, americanstage.org.
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