Terry Morgan
Theater encompasses every type of theme, from dealing with any number of adversities to how to sell more meat pies, but here’s one you don’t encounter very often – how does the brain create consciousness? How does the combination of living tissue and electrochemical processes create an individual? What makes you, “you?” Weston Gaylord has taken up this issue in his fascinating new play, Octopus’s Garden, in which cephalopod researchers are investigating this topic but discover something unexpected. The world premiere co-production (with Circle X Theatre Co. and Outside In Theatre) at Boston Court Pasadena is visually lovely, superbly acted and surprising in the best way.
Also, giant octopus puppet alert!
Tara (Kacie Rogers) and Lars (Tim Cummings) are research partners in a marine biology lab in which they study giant Pacific octopuses. Progress has been slow lately, which is fine with Lars as he appreciates the rigors of the scientific method. Tara, however, is impatient to get big results. One evening at a bar she meets composer Lucas (Vincent R. Williams), and while discussing her work with him, he suggests that a cephalopod’s decentralized nervous system might be ideal for creating music. Excited by the prospect, Tara tests it out on the octopus she thinks might be the best fit, Sylvia, but the results are so startling that they fundamentally change the lives of everyone involved, and not necessarily for the better…
Rogers delivers a smart, energetic and sharp performance as Tara, demonstrating both the positives and negatives of a kind of person who is more concerned with blazing a new trail than worrying about possible consequences. Cummings (in a most welcome return to LA theater) is excellent as the deliberative Lars, showing (especially in his monologue about scuba diving) how the fact that someone doesn’t show much emotion on the surface doesn’t mean that deeper feelings aren’t present. Williams gives an intensely emotional performance as Lucas, who is perhaps more of a hapless victim of circumstance in this situation. The puppeteers (Zachary Bones, Perry Daniel and Danielle McPhaul) who perform Sylvia do amazing, beautiful work, convincing the audience that a giant octopus is floating onstage before them.
Director Jessica Kubzansky creates an impressive balance of intelligent drama and an ethereal, otherworldly vibe, benefiting enormously from Karyn D. Lawrence’s expert lighting design. This is demonstrated well in both the scene in which Lars describes his dive and the entire stage takes on an aquatic atmosphere and one in which Lars listens to a piece of music and all the lights suddenly go multicolored as he hears things he’s never heard before. Gaylord’s writing is intelligent, funny and original. He’s unafraid to go a bit dark, which takes this play places I wasn’t imagining it would go, which was intriguing.
Octopus’s Garden is a terrific production of an impressive new work. It wasn’t the play I was expecting – it’s a better one.
Octopus’ Garden is a co-production by Circle X Theatre Co., Outside In Theatre and Boston Court Pasadena at Boston Court Pasadena and plays through March 29 2026. Date, times and tickets info is available at https://bostoncourtpasadena.org/events/octopus/
Info from their site:
A World Premiere Co-Production with Circle x Theatre Co. and Outside In Theatre
When two marine biologists and a struggling composer discover that an octopus in a cephalopod lab has written the most transcendent piece of music ever heard, their worlds begin to unravel. Ambitions clash, egos fray, and their brush with something divine breeds obsession. Innovative puppetry brings soulful theatricality to this fable about art, science, and the moral quandaries that erupt when another being surpasses humankind.
JOIN US FOR ILLUMINATIONS!
Post-show discussions that begin immediately after the show.
SUN, MAR 8
Illumination on Playwriting with Weston Gaylord
FRI, MAR 13
Illumination on Acting
SAT, MAR 14
Illumination on Directing with Jessica Kubzansky
(after 2PM show)
SUN, MAR 15
Illumination on Puppet Design with Emory Royston
SUN, MAR 22
Illumination on Theme
Publish or Perish- The Pressures on Marine Science Today with Dr. Gustavo Ramírez
Hear a first-hand account of what it’s like to study octopuses at sea, wrangle with lab funding, and find the balance of creativity and scientific empiricism.
Pauline Adamek
