What do you choose when confronted with a life-altering decision? When something occurs in our lives that changes the direction so completely that things will never quite be the same again? In Samantha Ipema’s autobiographical performance, we are toured through the emotional rollercoaster of teenage life as the soccer-loving tomboy’s typical high school life is upended with the diagnosis of a rare form of brain aneurysm.
With a topic such as that, you’d be forgiven for expecting some morose, tragic piece, but instead, Wild Geese has turned it into an unexpectedly quirky and energetic performance, most especially when Annie herself takes physical form, as played by Eleanor House. Thundering onto the stage like a dervish of movement and boundless hyperactive energy, “Annie” is not just an intrusive and boisterous friend. She’s a figurative embodiment of both the cascade of emotions, existential dread, and the looming potential of a sudden death.
This complicates matters further, as Sam must choose how to deal with her condition, but the real wants and needs of a 20-year-old don’t always match up with the advice being given, and weighing risks isn’t easy in a world of hypotheticals.
It’s a well-crafted and smartly executed performance. The use of various old-school CRT TV sets to display old family videos and photos, as well as talking head snippets from Sam’s family, gives a more intimate feel to the story. There’s a smart mirroring going on in the play as well. As much as early scenes take time to paint the beautiful moments when Sam’s brother adoptive Mika enters her life, these are contrasted with the insistent boisterousness of Annie, an imagined persona but one whose impact will just as equally shape and dictate aspects of her life and outlook from hereon in.
While the play is undeniably funny, and the path the audience is led along is never dull, the play never quite lands the emotional punch to counter the comedic side of the story. It’s holding back. In some ways, “Annie” gets in the way, rather like she does in Sam’s head. Not that this play needs a swing into mawkish glummity or manipulative melodrama, but rather that the hints of true vulnerability aren’t dwelt upon, with the piece too quick to fly back into a joke and not let some of the real weight of the subject matter land at moments where it could be most effective.
That aside, this is a genuinely beautiful exploration of arrested vibrancy and a tale of familial warmth overcoming all.