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Eric M. Messner and Danny Gavigan in the Theater Alliance's "Five Flights"
Adam Bock's Five Flights centers around an unlikely plight - what to do with a dilapidated aviary. But when a father believes his wife's soul lived in that bird's home, the stakes for the aviary's fate get a little bit higher.
Theater Alliance's set evokes the aviary with a nestlike web of branches and broken windows - the structure was built by the main characters' father when their mother passed away. Ed (Eric M. Messner) is one of the surviving sons, and he explains the significance of the structure. Each of the characters has a different view on what should be done with it, and much of the play centers around the debate.
Bock appears to be asking a bigger question on how individuals cope with lost love. There are moments of beauty in his writing, like when Tom passionately explains how hockey is like ballet or when Ed tells the audience more about his sister-in-law, granting more depth to the initially flat character in the process. But something is out of balance here, and great speeches, honed dialogue, and quirky characterization can't quite compensate for it.
Bock works his play around the five parts of a ballet (The Narrative, A Vision, The Mad Scenes, The Conclusion, and The Little Dances), but the structure seems forced upon the plot - a neat but empty trick. The love story between Ed and Tom, whom he meets along the way, feels sudden and unjustified. Similarly abrupt is when Tom (Danny Gavigan) stands up in the middle of a scene and addresses the audience directly, saying how great falling in love is. It's touching, but as this it the only time his character shows awareness of the playgoers, it feels out of place.
Messner's Ed is down-to-earth, a little funny, and a little haunted, and the actor's humility endears him to the audience. His fourth-wall-breaking expositions are familiar, like your only friend at someone else's family party. Helen Parfumi plays Ed's sister Adele, and their sibling playfulness makes it feel as if they've known each other all their lives. Hers is the quietest character when it comes to talking with others, but she has a monster of a monologue. Parfumi's pacing is perfect as she tells the story of her mother's death, her father's obsession, and the wren that might have been her mother's soul. Adele Robey makes Olivia, the bird-priestess and Adele's spiritual guide, less charismatic than the role might call for, but she's equally affecting as a kind of kooky aunt with cultish tendencies.
The play doesn't quite reach what it stretches for, but the actors entertain and certain images stick. Olivia's refrain, "The soul is a bird we keep in our heart," Adele's tale of growing up with a bird as a mother, the frenzied flapping of wings at Olivia's bird mass all almost coalesce into something great. But these elements are more beautiful on their own as pieces, like different-feathered birds roosting in the same tree.
Five Flights runs through June 28 at H St. Playhouse. Tickets are available online.
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