Jessica Munna’s play Pieces of Us is about modern America, and the failures of the structures which should protect people is clearly a call from the heart. It’s a verbatim piece, weaving a series of mini-tapestries which all thematically match, despite the disparate locations and people.
Winding its way from such disparate points of view as an impoverished teacher, crippled with guilt and loan repayments, to a wealthy young businessman who’s had to make things on his own. All pivoting around a central repeated epithet of loss.
Munna is a versatile and skilled performer, imbuing each character with a unique physicality and mannerisms, as well as a localised accent and cadence. It’s clear we’re not seeing a heightened reality here, and every story draws on new feelings of hope and despair, weighing up the needs and wants of people against whether their community and families have offered them any more than the systems that are in place can.
It’s a good piece of theatre, but towards the end it never quite draws itself to a solid conclusion, rather the voices end and Munna leaves the stage. It’s not a bad ending, but after so much disparity, it lacks a cathartic pinning or a weighty message to bring it all to a resounding close.