Cassie M. Seinuk is a writer with a passion for connection. Quite simply, she hopes to "find a universal identity, where people of differing backgrounds, religions and orientations can find connection through each other." Her 2014 Pestalozzi Prize winning play "From the Deep" is a very strong case in point. Based on the separate stories of Israel Defense Force POW Gilad Shalit and missing Boston architectural student Jonathan Dailey, her theoretical two-person scenario absorbingly speculates about how two such distinct victims might have helped each other in a common confinement. Now Boston Public Works Theater Company is giving such a connection-one transcending diverse roots and orientation-a powerfully disturbing premiere at the Boston Center for the Arts.
"From the Deep" brings together fictional IDF hostage Ilan and student prisoner Andrew to find what she terms "connection through each other, through shared collective consciousness and ability to give something to a stranger." The captives' connection begins with the five-year IDF prisoner showing the young newcomer how to survive confinement-the kind of mentoring that figures prominently in the Frank McGuinness' drama "Someone Who'll Watch over Me." Also, Ilan and Andrew's surreal confinement zone calls to mind Jean Paul Sartre's existential classic "No Exit." Megan Kinneen has appropriately designed the play's special space with gossamer walls and ceiling and appointed it with such curious props as a non-working television and player-less DVDs.
Ilan, in guiding Andrew about focus and brain sharpness in confinement, teaches him about the importance of games (for example, the card game Spit). Other strategies include strenuous physical activity and intellectual pursuits, including writing and drawing. Their regular game of ping pong eventually has Ilan even testing Andrew on such basic Hebrew as 'ach' (brother) and 'cheder' (room) during an extended volley. The intrepid IDF corporal (also Shalit's rank when he was kidnapped) militates against fear and stresses the importance of hope. In fact, playwight Seinuk has him humming Israel's national anthem 'Ha-Tikvah' ('The Hope') right under the ping pong table at the start of the second act.
Hope connects with survivor thinking as both men describe plans for their respective futures. Ilan wants to be a sports reporter and interview athletes at the Olympics, which he wants to see coming to Jerusalem. In fact, Shalit has worked as a sports columnist for the popular Israeli newspaper Yediot Achronot and even covered the 2012 NBA Finals (Seinuk not surprisingly includes an NCAA basketball in her play). Andrew envisions designing skyscrapers capable of withstanding natural disasters.
Their references to family and friends prove equally vivid. Ilan's opportunity to see his parents (pleading for his release) and his sister raises his spirits, and work on a family tree bolsters his identity and self-awareness. Andrew speaks positively of his Pennsylvania roots but most fondly of his best friend Dean, who even found work in the Hub, where Andrew studies at Boston University. Strikingly-as information at the Plaza Black Box details- Dailey's best friend Miles found employment in Boston as Jonathan attended graduate school at Boston Architectural College.
Eventually Andrew reveals just how important Dean is to him in a moment of truth-telling about a visit to a gay bar and subsequent encounter with a patron that brought him to confinement. Will Andrew and Dean reunite someday soon? Will Andrew come out to Dean? Will Ilan return home as Shalit actually did? Seinuk makes her characters' respective fortunes very involving, and director Lindsay Eagle sharply paces their interactions as well as their personal struggles.
Charles Linshaw as Ilan and Jeff Marcus as Andrew are remarkably affecting. Linshaw, a voice/dialect coach in his own right, speaks with a very convincing Israeli accent (and largely credits time with Tel Aviv friends) and delivers Hebrew words with full authority. He smartly balances Ilan's frustration about the length of his captivity, confidence about the rightness of his strategy in dealing with confinement and occasional outbursts of impatience in exchanges with Andrew. Marcus does well conveying Andrew's reserve-especially as he waxes rhapsodic about his time with Dean and how much his friend means to him. He does equally well detailing his struggles squaring his sexual preference with his Christian background.
Chris Bocchiaro's lighting vividly evokes Ilan and Andrew's respective star-centered outdoor memories. So it goes for designer Mike Stanton's insistent buzzers governing the characters' toughest moments and sharp use of sounds and voices to complement Ian and Andrew's reminiscences and reflections.
Seinuk has dedicated her play "in memory of her grandfather Ysrael A. Seinuk, who taught me to always go from strength to strength." Boston Public Works viscerally probing "From the Deep" more than lives up to that teaching in a must-see premiere.