Review: Little world utilizes quirky, comic and interactive set

Watching little world is like living inside the head of your favorite kooky grandma. Polka dots and stripes are everywhere, irreverent jokes about getting older ping around the room, and vibrant little philosophical puppets run wild. When theater professor and co-creator Ki Gottberg described the play as "Pee-Wee's playhouse for adults," she wasn't far off.

Carol Wolfe Clay, also a theater professor as well as the show's other co-creator, designed the sets for the show before it was written—it shows. Little world's plot exists mostly to hang on the unique universe Clay crafted beforehand. Visually, it is one of the most interesting shows that has run at the Lee Center and for that reason alone, it's worth a sit-through. The simple set is deceptively complex, sort of a Swiss army knife of stage design. The set never gets switched out completely during the one-act play. Instead, it grows, morphs and evolves as time goes on. The set is a character in and of itself. The fireplace you thought was just a fireplace at the beginning comes to life, the knick-knacks on the shelves all wind up interacting with the main character and triggering some important philosophical musing. Even the simple hanging sheets that frame the stage itself end up playing a major role.

Clay and Gottberg treat theater with the same reverence other cultures treat animals after the hunt. Nothing is wasted—all parts of this living animal of a set are used somehow. The sheer economical inventiveness is one of the most impressive parts of the play.

The story itself follows a nameless older woman dealing with an undescribed tragedy pertaining to a child of hers. The ethos of the play is sort of that the details aren't as important as the journey. In the end, that's what the plot is, a spiritual journey inside the psyche of one woman.

Suzy Hunt is incredible as the lead, her time on Broadway shines through in her expressive performance. Hunt zooms back and forth between frailty, despair and the trademark comedic "oomph" of her quirky character with ease. Kate Wisniewski, Jená Casne and Cecelia Frye play the main character's friends, who also seem to be running the interior psychological show in the most literal of ways. Their performance is notable mostly for its athleticism—the women switch characters and locations non-stop throughout, seamlessly shifting between playing the caring friends, the existential Frenchmen, and the giant cast of other puppets that each have a uniquely distinct personality. Watching the women run around the set in order to make all this happen makes other theater seem lazy.

The dimensions of the Lee Center are fascinatingly utilized. The show isn't contained to the stage. Characters enter from the lobby doors. Interactions occur between the set and the tech booth behind the audience. Monologues are delivered on the bleacher stairs. This show is three-dimensional—visceral in the way it takes hold of the space around it and uses every inch.

The humor may be a little older and the story may not be the most relatable to a younger college audience (this is, after all, a play about the tragedy of two mothers), but on the whole, little world is, if anything, an exciting reminder that theater can still be fun, inventive and colorful.

Kelton may be reached at entertainment@su-spectator.com