There are at least four heroes at Gorilla Theater these days, though only one of them dares to assume that title; two of them play 20 or more parts, and the last is never visible. That last one is Bridget Bean, who as director of Donald Margulies’ Shipwrecked! comes up with 120 minutes of ingenious ideas to convince us we’re in London signing on for a life aboard ship, out on the ocean fighting a giant octopus, swept up in a whirlpool that’s dizzily threatening our survival, or underwater, enjoying the beauty of a submerged paradise.
In fact, Bean’s imagination is so fertile, much of the suspense of Shipwrecked! comes from wondering what spectacle she’ll feature next. How will she convince us we’re watching a crowd of news-hungry Londoners, a loving sheepdog, a herd of jellyfish, violent aborigines, the Royal Geographical Society?
With only three actors and a slew of unlikely props to work with, Bean makes Shipwrecked! a series of visual treats, all of them unashamedly artificial and unremittingly delightful. Even her scene headings get a laugh, turning up on an oar, an umbrella and odd flotsam. When an audience cheers the line “Chapter Four,” you know something special is happening.
This article appears in Oct 7-13, 2010.