Review: Falling Down the Mountain of Great Storms by Broad Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Yes, it's a mess, but a mess with a message and a big heart. Greg Romero's Falling Down the Mountain of Great Storms as produced by Austin's Broad Theatre is a mosaic of bright absurdities.
If you're looking for a straight story line, this isn't the play for you. Araiane Steir as Audra, the focus of the script, holds it together with her appealing ingénue presence. She's onstage almost all of the time. Her character kicks things off with a cheerful lecture, a sort of meaningless TED talk about catastrophe. We're quickly shown that this is a cover for her personal trauma—implied sexual assault by a weirdo with a walking staff worthy of a wizard and a frozen glare as hypnotic as that of a cobra.
In the course of the evening—the evening, for there isn't a linear action—Audra encounters magic animals, chats with a tall, tongue-tied guy from the restaurant where she works, gets put-downs from her cynical, embittered mother, repeatedly hallucinates visions of he weirdo, and gets advice from a sleek, humanoid fox who serves in various pinch-hitter roles.
Romero, a Louisianan of Cajun descent, says that the story takes place in Louisiana, but in this staging it could be anywhere in your imagining. Yes, in two scenes, different characters self-consciously play a squeeze box, neither of them very well; and Romero provides a "Boudreau joke" that's egregiously stupid. The mother recites a legend about sky woman and the creation of the world, but that tale fits neither the narrative nor the character in question.
Adriane Steir is pert and quick as friendship develops with her co-worker Barry, but there's not a hint of Cajun in her speech or manner. Adonis Anderson as Barry is a droll delight of hesitations, hopes, and inhibitions.
Romero's non-speaking animal characters are gorgeously costumed. Lisa Kobdish stalks and peers memorably as the Blue Heron. Her scenes with Samantha Plumb as the Heron Chick take place in the balcony, obliging spectators to turn and peer. Jude Jecker's persona as Fox, all glittering eyes, knowing looks, containment and confidence, deserved a larger role, perhaps as something approaching Cabaret's M.C.—someone to direct the acts in this puzzling circus. In the role of the creepy guy, Delan Crawford makes it clear why Audra is haunted by her memories of him.
Suzanne Balling, who never disappoints, takes on the character of Lanette, Audra's bitter, sharp tongued mother. Lanette's as mean as a wicked stepmother in a Grimm fairy tale. Romero doesn't give her a single redeeming quality. But he does have Audra tell Barry, "She's a very unhappy person."
The title Falling Down the Mountain of Great Storms is unexplained. Perhaps it refers to a legend?
Take the ambiguities and non-linearity of this story as the playwright's effort to portray the subconscious of his main character. The message of the mess is that despite physical and psychological violence, there's hope for the young and ulnerable. Dream fugues, hallucinations, magic creatures, a belated, angry confrontation with nightmare—all these play a part. Audra finds a friend, gets perspective on her abusive mother, and repels obsessive thoughts of victimhood. We're on her side all the way.
[Note: performance photos have not been published.]
EXTRAS
Click to view KXAN's interview of director Molly Fonseca and co-artistic director Annika Lekven.
Falling Down the Mountain of Great Storms
by Greg Romero
Broad Theatre
August 13 - August 29, 2026
August 13 - 29, 2026 at 8 p.m.
Thursdays - Saturdays
The Rosette, Baker Center, Guadalupe and W. 40th St., Austin
