The Common Air
I missed The Common Air when it played Los Angeles last fall. Don’t miss it now. It is a remarkable one- man show written by Alex Lyras (actor) and Robert McCaskill (director). Together they have devised an intriguing piece of theatre about six disparate people all conjoined through an arbitrary event, a possible terrorist attack at the airport. Six degrees of separation, reminding us once again we are all interconnected. All the characters are hooked to some sort of cell phones. When the phones fail to help them connect when the events around them or even those ”loved ones” they can reach, they are forced to reach out to strangers through conversation and examine the circumstances of their lives. This mirrors the actor and writer’s needs to communicate with the audience, what is on their minds.
What is on their minds is both hilarious and profound. Alex Lyras is a very talented actor who gives us six very different characterizations complete with detailed costume changes, accents, accessories (different cell phones and personal items, and different views of the world.
First there is the Iraqi Cab Driver trying to get by in New York and whose life is a “reality show’ which he wants to sell to a passenger so he can have his share of the American dream. The passenger turns out to be a gay Gallery Owner who must decide whether to reunite with a lover he abandoned years ago in a gay bashing. And so it goes as Lyras proceeds to take us through a series of characters as each character talks to the next.
The Gallery owner shares his dilemma with Corporate Lawyer who is three sheets to the wind and disjointedly carries on a conversation with a DJ about a possible problem the DJ is having with a composer. All the while the Corporate Lawyer is trying to pick up a waitress and is contacting his assistant to get him an alternative flight. The way Lyras keeps track of the layers of props, conversations (real, texted and on the cell) and disjointed ramblings of this character, is masterful.
The hipster DJ talks to a man in the throws of divorce and recreates a peace of music he has co-opted from another musician but made his own. The divorcing man (a philosophy teacher) talks to his kid, his wife (on a cell) and another stranger as he fights to keep custody.
It comes full circle back in the cab with an American passenger who also happens to be of Iraqi descent. He recounts a sad tale of being caught up in a family situation that brings him back to Iraq and turns him into a failed suicide bomber. This is the longest and most involving section. The Cab Driver is stuck in traffic (like the characters are bogged down in their lives) and dances outside his cab. Like Zorba, he finds movement is the answer to life’s dilemmas. And so the story ends with a dance. The stories are life affirming yet odd enough to keep our rapt attention. The audience gave Lyras a standing ovation.
The extension is January 16,23, and 24.