“Agnes Under the Big Top” thoughtful, smart, touching new play at Long Wharf Stage II

4 stars

(4 stars is excellent, 3 stars is good, 2 stars is fair, 1 star is poor)

Location: 222 Sargent Drive, New Haven

Production: Written by Aditi Brennan Kapli. Directed by Eric Ting.

Set design by Frank Alberino. Costume design by Jessica Wegener Shay. Lighting design by Tyler Micoleau. Sound design and Composition by Katie Down. Sound composition by Sam Ghosh.

Running time: 1 ¾ hours with no intermission.

Show Times: Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Sundays at 7 p.m., Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 8 p.m., with Wednesday and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. and Saturday matinees at 3 p.m. through April 3.

Tickets: $35 to $65. For more information call their box office at 203-787-4282, or visit their website at www.longwharf.org

ACTOR…CHARACTER

Francesca Choy-Kee … Agnes

Michael Cullen … Shipkov

Eshan Bay … Happy

Laura Esterman … Ella

Gergana Mellin … Roza

Sam Ghosh … Busker

NEW HAVEN- “Agnes Under the Big Top, A Tall Tale” a new play by Aditi Brennan Kapli is nothing like I anticipated, and far beyond my expectations.

Set in a subway station with scenes that switch in place and time, this fast moving, modern play brings together immigrants from Bulgaria, Liberia, and India, who are all seeking to achieve their dreams in the United States.

They do so with varying degrees of success, but all struggle. It is also a story of the trauma of isolation and loneliness, and the hunger to connect.

Stage II is a most inconvenient stage. It is extremely long and very shallow, but set designer Frank Alberino’s subway station, with industrial metals and blacks, puts its limitations to fine advantage here, making it feeling like it is a real underground.

It is punctuated with scenes in a wealthy widow’s penthouse, Ella, played by the convincing Laura Esterman. She is bedridden with crippling arthritis, and her only companions are the two immigrant home aids who care for her around the clock. They are the Liberian Agnes played by the terrific Francesca Choy-Kee, and the Bulgarian Roza, played by excellent Gergana Mellin.

Casting in a play like this is everything, and director Eric Ting did an exemplary job. I can’t imagine a better or more believable cast. I have a thing for dialects and accents, and they all sounded authentic to me.

The immigrant Indian nicknamed “Happy” is a smiling a cheerful guy (Eshan Bay) who has taken a job in the subway learning to drive the train from Bulgarian immigrant Shipkov, a sarcastic and bitter former circus ringmaster who “has the gift of gabbery,” played by Michael Cullen.

Shipkov says that when he was a ringmaster at the circus there were moments when the audience would gasp, and that is when their souls were revealed.

Meanwhile, the wealthy widow who Agnes nicknames “the Wooden Queen” has one of the saddest stories of them all, and it is heartbreaking when it is revealed and proves that money really isn’t everything.

Their lives all intersect, but it evolves in an organic manner.

I’ll go on record saying that I’m generally not a fan of rap music, but here it really works, with a cool subway Busker, played by Sam Ghosh, who also does a fine turn as the mute Bulgarian clown, Bobo.

And when the subway passes by, you really feel like it is speeding through, thanks to the lighting, but also because of Ghosh’s drumming sound effects which expertly mimic the sounds of the subway wheels rolling over the tracks.

There are strobe lights used in this show, as well as an herbal cigarette, and some down feathers for those who might be allergic or have issues with flashing lights. There is also a good amount of profanity that isn’t gratuitous, but makes this show inappropriate for children.

The show jumps all around in locations and in time and lighted signs explaining where the actors are, which I thought extraneous at first, become helpful and necessary guideposts to keep it all understandable.

I won’t spoil the ending here, which was predictable as it was unexpected and deeply moving, but I will say that playwright Brennan Kapli’s poetic and beautiful language is transporting. This is one new play that I hope many get to experience.

(Photo of Francesca Choy-Kee as Agnes. Credit: T Charles Erickson)