Anything can happen in the forest, and it's been happening for millennia in literature. Sondheim and even Shakespeare can be considered among the more recent examples, with known recorded tales dating back to 2100 BC, when Gilgamesh entered the Cedar Forest to fight the monsters. The forest where the new play Sagittarius Ponderosa takes place may or may not be enchanted, but it can still be a powerful presence. "In the middle of our walk of life," Dante wrote in The Divine Comedy, "I found myself within a forest dark, for the straightforward pathway had been lost."
The straightforward pathway has certainly been lost to the main character in MJ Kaufman's promising but not completely satisfying work having its world premiere at New Conservatory Theatre Center. Archer has unhappily moved back into the family home amid the ponderosa pines in Oregon, leaving behind a muddled life only sketchily suggested to reenter a place where he is still known as Angela despite a countenance that suggests a gender-ambiguous name may be a better fit. It is outside the house, in the forest, where Archer begins to thrive.
The drama in Kaufman's play is mostly low-key and spaced out through occasional wordless interludes set to mystical music. But many of the specific scenes are of the kitchen-sink variety, involving grocery shopping, taking out the trash, and ordinary bickering. Archer is mostly surly, but not ready to press his new name and identity on his parents. The larger household drama is his father's deteriorating health, and escape from the familial confinement is discovered beneath one of the oldest trees in the forest.
It is there that he meets Owen, a young forestry intern, and introduces himself with a choice of names, Angela or Archer, and the first spark of a quickly igniting romance happens when Owen spontaneously chooses Archer. Trying to cast the relationship in hetero or homosexual constructs doesn't work, nor do these two characters address the issue at all.
While the dialogue is largely realistic, Kaufman has tossed in a few curveballs. Archer's somewhat addled grandmother gets a love potion recipe from an unlikely radio show, hoping to spur her grandchild into a traditional marriage. And Grandma has a suitor at the old folks home, and he happens to be played by a puppet designed by Dave Haaz-Boroque and operated by Archer's father for reasons that have a sense within the context of the story.
The play is made up of many short scenes jumping around several locations, and director Ben Randle's ingenious staging eliminates any lags between scenes. NCTC's Walker Theatre has been reconfigured so that audiences sit on opposite sides of the stage area, and James Ard's set design manages to bring all the locales into one place. (Ard is also responsible for the ethereal background score.)
The cast is an able one, with SK Kerastas, as Angela/Archer, capturing the nuances of this character who arrives home not yet quite knowing how to navigate a queer-gender life. Andy Collins amiably does double duty as Archer's father and the voice and manipulator of the puppet who becomes a part of the family. Janis DeLucia has a grim intensity as Archer's mother, contending with a family changing in sad and confusing ways. As the grandmother, Michaela Greeley goes for a kind of stock-issue doddering old lady, while Matthew Hannon provides genuine warmth as the easygoing student forester.
Sagittarius Ponderosa is not a play with swooping dramatic arcs, overt sexual politics, or climactic resolutions. This is a moody play that lulls rather than challenges you into entering its rearranged world.
Sagittarius Ponderosa will run at New Conservatory Theatre Center through Feb. 28. Tickets are $24-$45. Call (415) 861-8972 or go to nctcsf.org.