Acting is excellent in Premiere Stages production of ‘Walden’

Photo Courtesy of Mike Peters
From left, Erin Germaine Mahoney, Allison Altman and Anthony Vaughn Merchant in the current Premiere Stages production of ‘Walden.’

“Walden,” the current Premiere Stages production at Kean University, is a story about alienation and reconciliation.

Should that detachment exist between twin sisters who are both project-driven NASA astronauts, then their gulf can be recast and retold as failure at the highest level of personal and professional accomplishment, and the great distances between planets. This happens in “Walden” and it is at times a bumpy ride.

Written by Amy Berryman and directed by Charlotte Cohn, the play borrows its title from Henry David Thoreau’s 1854 book of his observations, reflections and two-year independence from society while encamped on the banks of a Massachusetts pond. That solitary seeking is also in “Walden.”

The play opens with the lights down and what sounds like a radio report of a spaceship’s reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere and splashdown. The lights go up and sitting at a table, drinking a glass of wine, is Stella, played by Allison Altman. Enter her fiance, Bryan, portrayed by Anthony Vaughn Merchant. He begins to drink wine. Stella is highly agitated because her astronaut-sister will soon arrive. Anthony, in the play’s parlance he is an “EA” or earth advocate. His mantra is “Why colonize outer space while the Earth suffers”? But his sense of humor makes him the most realized character in the show.

The interior of their abode is rustic. There are modest conveniences, but it could be a cabin in a state park and was built by Anthony and his brother. Stella and Anthony discuss a devastating tsunami which had recently killed millions of people, and the anticipated arrival of Cassie, the estranged other sister played by Erin Germaine Mahoney. She is a botanist, fresh from a year-long lunar mission who has managed a scientific breakthrough by growing plants in lunar dust.

She will not quite believe that her sister would consider marrying an earth advocate knowing full well, as a former NASA architect, that the future of humankind is on Mars. The opening is surreal, but believable.

When Cassie lands on their doorstep, the women do not get along from the get-go, orbiting each other, feeling the other out for the anticipated scorn they believe is in store for them, arguing and reconciling only to erupt again. This goes on perhaps a little too long, but eventually, it is their passions that cause the rejection. Stella wants a child; Cassie wants Bryan.

We learn that Stella, who followed her father into NASA, and was followed by Cassie, failed as an astronaut because she blacked out while training with her sister. But she made the grade as the architect of a proposed Martian colony for a mission. To her dismay Cassie will lead this mission after a short stay on Earth. Then she will leave for Mars where, she worries, she will live out her days.

“Do you feel human on the moon?” Stella asks Cassie.

“No, I feel purposeful,” is the reply. “I wonder if this is what I want.”

The final scene between the battling sisters is especially moving and, as always, Premiere Stages acting is excellent.

The run time is approximately 90 minutes without intermission. Performances are in the Bauer Boucher Theatre Center: Thursday, Sept. 18, at 7:30 p.m.; Fridays at 7:30; Saturdays, at 3 and 7:30 p.m. and Sundays, at 3 pm. Box Office: 908-737-7469 or visit: premierestagesatkean.com.