After Brian Tuttle and 11:11 Theatre Company’s holiday season offering, The Three (Un)Wise Men, I was apprehensive about my trip to The Factory Theatre for Tuttle’s newest tale, Foreverendia.  The Three (Un)Wise Men wasn’t a BAD show, in fact, I gave it a pretty good overall review, but it wasn’t a pithy thing, and it relied a lot more on one-liners and goofy stage business than it did on good solid writing.  I was terrified when I read the description of Foreverendia as I noted it was going to be told from a children’s perspective and had a bit of a coming-of-age feel to it.  Would it be too lascivious?  Would it lack sensitivity?  Would I end up feeling like I was watching a bunch of grown-ups running around pretending to be parodies of little kids?  No.  No, no, and no.  In fact.  Tuttle and his skeleton crew of a production team, paired with six refined actors, produced one of the most tender and thoughtful pieces I have seen in 2010.

Foreverendia opened with a bare stage that was quickly turned into a playful wonderland with umbrellas, blankets, pillows and paper stars.  Stuffed animals, gadgets, ladders and coat stands filled in for furniture and props.  The colorful landscape included mountains, forests, rivers and desert, exactly as a pre-teen would imagine it.  The audience is quickly introduced to Nim and Bailey, two girls who have escaped their homes through the chimney after an unexpected snow storm covers the land.  The girls bond on the rooftop and promise to be friends, in the sweet and innocent way that children do, by agreeing to it as if they were trading toys, not emotions.  The pair are joined by young Lawrence, and mysterious, ageless Babbles and spend many days and nights trading the reality of their home-lives for the comfort and adventure of Foreverendia.  Like all good fantasies, though, their bliss is only short lived, as their parent’s flaws and shortcomings creep into the make-believe until facing them is unavoidable.  The tragic result of this climax caught me completely off guard, and definitely brought a tear to my eye.

The excellent cast played their characters with wit and sensitivity.  From softly innocent Bailey, played with spot-on clarity by Louise Hamill, to adventurous and troubled Nim, who Robyn Linden embodied with an extraordinary sparkle of youth and creativity, to sensitive and shy Lawrence, the humble everyman played perfectly by Evan Quinlan and impish Babbles who Noah Tobin characterized fully, from playful voice to joyful, dance-like movement.  The quartet could not have been better suited for each other and had both good timing and good chemistry.  Each one of the audience members could identify themselves or their loved ones in the youthful intentions of the characters.  I was touched by each.  Lizette M. Morris and Renee Donlon had the incredibly difficult task of playing adults in this fantasy world, and each brought a wonderful and sophisticated treatment to their role.  I loved both women’s different manifestations of adulthood.

As a world premiere, Tuttle should be proud of how touching and lyrical Foreverendia was as a whole.  My faith has been completely affirmed by him as a playwright.  Of course, with any premiere, there are kinks to work out, the end of act one, scene, for example, was slow and could easily be cut down to a more exciting and dramatic conclusion of the act, and the length, in general, of a lot of the scenes, could use a trim.  And while I enjoyed the Pan-like whimsy of Babbles, I didn’t quite get who he was and how he was connected to the children- he seemed to be ageless (he never wore shoes) and never spoke of his parents.  I wanted to know more about him- or perhaps less.  It was so exciting to get to talk about this show with my companion after the performance.  We had a lot to say; the mark, I would argue, of a great show.  One last thing, a thousand compliments to Erin Murray for her absolutely beautiful sound design for the show.  The evocative, eerie melodies were a thing of beauty and made this production complete.  Bravo, 11:11.

True love’s first kiss?