Santa Barbara–based playwright Kieron Barry presents his latest show, Spy For Spy, in select locations on the Central Coast after returning from a run off the West End. Sophisticated and eccentric, the play (directed by Michael Massey) is a series of six scenes that describe the relationship between Molly (Andrea Flowers) and Sarah (Meeghan Holaway) from neurotic beginnings to fraught in-betweens to a solemn end — but what order of scenes best describes the arc of the relationship? The structure of Spy For Spy is that these scenes can be played in any order to accomplish the same story, though the emotional manifestation created by the order of events will be unique to each version.
Show-goers help choose the order of scenes pre-show, which is a fun way to elicit (light) audience participation. Impressively, each scene is so considerately crafted that they truly can be played interchangeably. They all touch on the theme of order versus chaos, whether it’s as overt as an argument about whether or not a story should happen in order, or as nuanced as a character asking Alexa to shuffle a playlist. Is there, as Sarah suggests, one path to walk? Or, as Molly believes, is life a random world of chaos that occurs based on the direction you choose in every instant?
For a man, Barry writes female characters very well, bright with the dichotomy of passion and subdued appetites; brash with an equally harsh and compelling exterior persona hiding an inner warrior who craves the softness of a loving embrace. Produced at the Black Box, a funky, intimate space off the beaten path, Spy For Spy is the kind of independent theater that should absolutely be supported and nurtured.
Whatever order the scenes are played, Spy For Spy is complex and engrossing. See it in Ventura September 29 and October 5; or back in Santa Barbara on October 12 and 13. See spyforspyplay.com for tickets.
