Review: Walden (Remix) by Mary Moody Northen Theatre
by Michael Meigs

First, take a deep breath. Then plunge into an imaginary world where an eighteen-year-old science whiz has been sent solo to the moon for a year to test moondust for a substance that may retard or entirely reverse the disastrous effects of climate change. Her only companion in the living module is an AI presence titled "Larry Bird" or "L.B." Unlike HAL2000, imagined by Stanley Kubrick 57 years ago in 2001, A Space Odyssey, Larry Bird is a positive, reasonable invisible companion for a very young woman alienated not only from earth but also from her family.

 

We receive no background to explain H's bitter rejection of her parents and sister; we also have no account of NASA's selection, training, and mentorship for this astonishingly young astronaut. 

 

Got that? Then go with it; let suspension of disbelief take over and pay attention to the story and messages delivered by this thoughtful little YA+ work KJ Sanchez has spun from glimmerings of Henry David THoreau's Walden, another story of mediative isolation.

 

Marie Ritchie as the enigmatically named "H" is onstage virtually every moment of the play. She handles her enormous load line confidently and well.

The story's moon cadet is no less privileged than Thoreau was, for she's supplied and protected by NASA and sustained by regular video conference calls from a trio of friends of her own age. In this augmented, channeled version of social media they applaud her path-breaking venture and share events of their own lives. The trio are ranged along the spectrum from extroversion to introversion. They're essentially stock characters, but the actors fill them out and make them real.

 

Emily is an activist, advocating measures to support protection of the environment. Gabrielle North, who has appeared on the main stage of Austin's Zach Theatre, embodies enthusiasm while creating a character that's whole and believable. She subtly shows shifts of emotion and radiates empathy toward her lunar friend. Emily has lots of initiative; her birthday present to H, sent up pre-wrapped along with the others, is Thoreau's Walden, apparently the only physical book on board. She urges H to reconcile with her family. H refuses, but Emily won't accept that refusal; she eventually brings H's younger sister Lucy into one of the video chats.

 

 

Lucy, played by Indigo Lane, is less complicated than the others on the video conferences; she provides H a link to at least part of her family life. Their parents, whatever their sins may have been, never appear. The implication is that those parents are simply too busy or self-obsessed to pay attention to either of their daughters. Many young adults may identify with those feelings.

 

Equity guest artist Chandler Collins is a gentle, impoverished, self-doubting actor/singer. He's about to graduate high school and has an opportunity to audition for a famous acting program on the east coast. Marshall is doubly terrified—first, by the audition; second by the prospect that he might succeed with it and find himself eventually comitted to the long, uncertain, winding road of a professional career as a performer. Many persons of his age and older are facing similar fears: will I succeed? What will I be when I grow up? Will I be a failure all my life? In addition to his sympathetic read of his character, Collins provides a remarkable embodiment of Marshall's dilemmas. As a member of Actors Equity, he has chosen to face those same fears and commmit to performance.

 

Xander Bauder is Alex, a highstrung and probably neurodivergent loner reluctant to face jeers from the outside world. It's remarkable that he has come to institute the third leg of this trio. His eloquent expression of his own agonies will speak to others not afflicted with his syndrome, for many of us are reticent for one reason or another to venture beyond our own very narrowly defined comfort zones.

 

Theada Haining's set design places H on a small elevated center platform that emphasizes the limited living space within the lunar module. For video calls, her friends appear in pools of light at the corners of the theatre-in-the-square. The Mary Moody Northen Theatre has stage platforms high in the corners of its space, but for this production they're masked with panels of dark, irregular lattice work. These and the  shadows left overhead by Megan Reilly's lighting design reinforce the feeling of  H's confinement without becoming claustrophobic.

 

 

Walden [remixed] explores these characters' approaches to the basic choices of young adulthood. It contrasts them with the blithely reasonable, emotionless responses of H's AI friend Larrry Bird. He's a useful foil for her meditations in isolation. We hear him at first and may perceive him as a flickering image that Reilly projects onto the latticework in the high corners. H becomes dependent upon LB's presence. About the time that she begins refusing messages from NASA in Houston, Larry Bird materializes for us in the person of Erick Aguilar. He's mild, attentive, and blank-faced, but H's rages push him away. Voices of reason have feelings too.

 

Walden [remixed] has a healthy, non-dogmatic approach to feminism, emphasizing the capabilities of the female characters, and an aversion to corporatism, entirely appropriate today as the positive achievements of national government are being attacked. More central to playwright Sanchez's concerns, however, are the challenges of coming of age and the fundamental need for friends to help find meaning in our contemporary moment.

 

Anyone who longs to be understood as a hero and yet suffers from self-doubt—in other words, most of us—will appreciate the reassuring message of Walden [remixed] that friendship remains essential.

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Walden (Remix)
by KJ Sanchez
Mary Moody Northen Theatre

April 3 - 13, 2025

Thursdays - Saturdays at 7:30, Sunday at 2:00

Mary Moody Northen Theatre, St. Edward's University, 3001 S. Congress Ave, Austin

Seat reservations and tickets available HERE