One by one they file into a black-walled room. Four identical desks and chairs are set up. It almost looks like a school room.
Two people enter, we learn that they are both art designers.
Throughout the show, none of them are referred to by name and should not be hampered by identity or gender.
In the program of "Four Coloring" written by Mackenzie Raine Kirman, the first two into the room are Red, described as a career designer, and White, a hot-shot designer, famous and trendy.
Gabiel del Portal as Blue and Luis Otamendi as Red in LakehouseRanchDotPNG's production of Mackenzie Raine Kirkman's original play "Four Coloring" at Main Street Playhouse in Miami Lakes through Sunday, Feb. 2. (Photo by Maria Valdes)
The show, produced by LakehouseRanchDotPNG runs at Main Street Playhouse in Miami Lakes through Sunday, Feb. 2.
The two fight to fit into the door barely speaking to each other.
The conversation starts with Red (Luis Otamendi) commenting on the pencil that hot-shot White is adding to his desk arsenal. White (Richard Lewis) quickly shuts him down.
"When I'm working, I'm sort of in the zone. Not really looking to swap ideas and chit-chat. You know?"
Red says he merely wanted to compliment him on the design pencil he has pulled from a fancy leather art supply kit.
"It's a Graf von Faber-Castell Perfect Pencil," White condescendingly says to the person they have just met.
After a back and forth about their tools of the trade, a third person enters, who in the program is simple known as Blue (Gabriel del Portal). You see where this is going, "Red, White and Blue?"
They have no idea why they have been summoned but now they all realize they are in the same vocations. Blue reveals there was a contest on social media for an opportunity and applied.
Charisma Jolly, Richard Lewis, Gabriel del Portal and Luis Otamendi as Other, White, Blue and Red are designers called together to create something new in LakehouseRanchDotPNG's production of "Four Coloring." (Photo by Maria Valdes)
White says a request for their services was requested, while Red's company assigned them to the project.
And then the last of the four enters – Other (Charisma Jolly). They don't even have a piece of paper and boldly get up and rips a piece from Blue's big sketch book.
They all agree they have no idea why exactly they are there. At one point, they learn that they are trapped. The exit door is no longer an exit but it leads right back into the room.
The play is a Theater of the Absurd delight – influences of Kafka, Albee, Beckett, Sartre – where characters are most always portrayed in closed systems they cannot escape.
And again in Absurdist fashion, their being contained leads to them fighting to take control. (Ionesco's "Rhinoceros" anyone?)The lights go down quickly then come back up.
On the stage-right wall is what almost looks like an old-time slide with simple writing on it – it looks handwritten, almost childlike, and not standard type.
These are The Rules: "Design the American Flag."No other instructions.They work on their drawings and one by one, Big Brother somewhere sees them. A loud buzzer and a red light signal that none of them have passed the test.
New Rules appear: Design the New American Flag that looks different from the current one. They try again and again.
At one point, one of the designers shows nothing but the drawing of an AK-47 on paper. "I'm drawing what I think of when I think of America. I live here. This is what I think of."
The others squabble with the designer who drew the gun, who then queries: "Did you or did you not immediately know why I drew it."
There is silence.
Beyond contemporary commentary, Kirkman introduces real history facts. Their dialogue brings historical references like the 1818 flag act and the character of Red is the one who explains.
Otamendi, whose character at one point is accused of being part of the Squid Game, delivers the lines as they should be – knowledgeable and assured despite the questioning by the others.
Lewis as the highfalutin designer presents in the beginning as someone with no fear, but when they realize they are stuck in the room, the ego shifts.
Luis Otamendi, Gabriel del Portal and Richard Lewis as Red, Blue and White in LakehouseRanchDotPNG's production of Mackenzie Raine Kirkman's "Four Coloring" at Main Street Playhouse in Miami Lakes through Sunday, Feb. 2. (Photo by Maria Valdes)
Del Portal as Blue, who brings to mind Brad Pitt in his early days of "Thelma and Louise" is the quizzical one? Sort of the mediator and plays the middle man well. Jolly's plays the role on the edge, an impulsive, no fear daredevil. They are all marvelous.
It's an interesting play in the current landscape. The final flag and the current flag today, with 50 stars that added Hawaii, was adopted in 1959. Betsy Ross sewed the first flag in 1776.
At one point, satisfying what the audience has most likely been doing the entire time up to about 45 minutes into the 60 minute show, Other and Red break the fourth wall, leave the stage and hand out Ticonderoga pencils and white paper. We're to design our own version of a new American flag and whether you will have to show your flag or not . . well . . let's just leave that question unanswered.
The ensemble cast is tightly knit, which is required of the piece.
No one can be on a different playing field than the other, but all of the actors lean into the characters that Kirkman has assigned to them.
Brandon Urrutia's direction has surely pulled the actors together as an ensemble and he assures that everything feels claustrophobic but not so much as to stifle the production.
Erin Proctor's costumes, all white -- fancy shirt and pants for White, a red vest and sweat pants for Red, and blue jeans, a jacket and shirt, for Blue; Other is dressed in nothing descript, purposely.
Leonardo Ubina's lighting design creates a foreboding element and Indy Sulliero's all black room is absolutely and perfectly barren.
At 60 minutes, "Four Colorings" moves at a clip while never missing a beat.
The original play is especially gripping in these very different times in America. Maybe there will be a calling for a redesign of the next American flag. It seems frighteningly prophetic.
IF YOU GO:
WHAT: LakehouseRanchDotPNG's "Four Coloring" by Mackenzie Raine Kirkman
WHERE: Main Street Playhouse, 6812 Main St., Miami Lakes.
WHEN: 8 p.m., Friday, Jan. 31 and Saturday, Feb. 1, 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 2.
INFO AND TICKETS: $20 general admission at https://www.lakehouseranchdotpng.com/tickets
