Len Jenkin has a special knack for making quirky, prototypical, found poetry from the imagery of everyday life. It might be that one, resonating song floating from an antiquated radio, in a hobo jungle. Or the way a sudden downpour sizzles on a poorly lit street, late, late at night. The narrator: Little Sister speaks with a kind of nonchalant, though unassailable reverie. In their way, Shakey Jake + Alice are the romanticized, quintessential teen delinquent couple. They’re just intrepid and transgressive enough to be charming. Their thrift store finery is cool yet sweet. They know how to loll in the comfort of each other’s company.
How is it That We Live or Shakey Jake + Alice takes careful steps to illustrate and demonstrate the richness of our glorious-catastrophic-melancholy lives, if we just wait and let the enchantment come. Jenkin makes a convincing case for this, interspersing sybaritic episodes with chaos and/or profound disappointment. As teenagers, Jake and Alice are careless, wry, and awash in pleasure. When Alice goes off to college, and Jakey commences his hitchhiker’s odyssey, a supposed estrangement takes place. Like many men before him, Jake seeks truth in prolonged exploration of the world’s (not necessarily exotic) mysteries. Enlightenment in motion? He declines Alice’s invitations to visit her on campus, while she earns her degree. The next time she sees him, many years have passed, along with her devotion to Jakey. It’s not just that Jakey (true to his name) is unreliable, but his assumption that Alice will indefinitely hold a torch.
Other shows like Port Twilight, Time in Kafka, and Jonah also explore the celebration of the quirky, the off-beat, the fanciful, to be found in ordinary experience. It’s as if Jenkin is coining a benign series of urban legends. The contentious relationship between common mythology and the merciless truth. Perhaps intuitive decisions don’t always pan out. Perhaps Jake stays away so long because he believes his path to bliss will ultimately intersect with Alice’s. But maybe it won’t? It’s worth considering that in the previously mentioned shows (Twilight, Kafka, Jonah) Jenkin kept more balls in the air, putting romance in the context of other, concurrent plots or tangents. For some reason, when a single attachment is the main attraction, it doesn’t seem quite as vibrant. That being said, How is it That We Live or Shakey Jake + Alice is touching and lyrical, without feeling precious or didactic.
Undermain Theatre presents : How is it That We Live or Shakey Jake + Alice, playing September 13th – October 7th, 2018. 3200 Main Street, Dallas, Texas 75226. 214-747-5515. www.undermain.org
interesting characters who seem strangely fascinated by their own sadness