‘Open’ @ Echo Theatre
Photos by Wesley Kirk
—Jan Farrington
Just before the pandemic, playwright Crystal Skillman’s Open—a New York Times Critic’s Pick then—had a short run in the city. Now, the play’s Off-Broadway premiere is set to start at the WP Theater in July. But meanwhile, back at the ranch, Echo Theatre got an okay from Skillman to open Open…well, before it opens in New York.
So, this regional premiere is a real early-bird special for North Texas theater folk. Directed with great energy and thoughtfulness by Mikaela Baker, and performed solo by the magnetic Aren M. Hugo, the nicely intimate stage space inside the Bath House Cultural Center becomes the setting for both a magic show and a story of romance interrupted by hate. Can the magic do anything to fix things? The Magician on stage desperately hopes it can.
Aren M. Hugo plays The Magician, who tells the story of their romance with Jenny, begun with one glance in a gap between books at NYC’s legendary Strand—books on the occult, a subject that brings them together. The Magician tries to tell the story of their relationship in three tidy Acts—First Love, Commitment, and Sacrifice—but the story prefers to splinter into fragments, a hall of broken-glass mirrors where time and love wander.
We do know, at some point, that Jenny has been the target of a brutal gay-bashing, and was (or is) lying in a hospital bed, tubes attached and monitors beeping. The Magician is frantic with love and fear and hope; we see it all in Hugo’s pained, mirror-like eyes. She performs tricks and magic that are remembrances of their life together, and promises of what could yet come. The dialogue is fast and often agitated; Hugo’s Magician talks to a lot of people we don’t see, but most poignantly to Jenny herself, the Jennies of their past and present, and the Jennies of an imagined future.
The production team, clearly seeing themselves as accompanists to The Magician, has worked marvels: Ryan Simon’s music and sound design (making so many imaginary gestures seem real as rain); Jonah Gutierrez’ lighting that flickers and pulses and even seems to speak; and Kateri Cale’s set design (with input from scenic artist Steven Ploch), whose columns shimmer in waves of color; onstage, grids and lines (and stars) lead The Magician in needful paths.
This is (or very possiblly will be) a sad story. But Skillman’s words, interwoven with love and joy, let us and The Magician revel in the happiness that can lie between magic and reality. And though the magic, mostly, is formed between Hugo’s gestures and our imaginations (invisible balls fly through the air, and silver rings join together in unseen unity), a red scarf does, actually, make an appearance. Red is the color of wounds and loss, but also of courage and faithfulness. We wonder what The Magician makes of this sudden burst of reality…and what hope it may offer us.
Open leaves things exactly that way…open. Skillman’s play is hard to catch upand put together at first, but comes together in deeply felt emotion. And Hugo’s performance is a kind of magic, turning disjointed language and bits of plot into a story we won’t forget…and wish we could stay with longer.
WHEN: June 6-21, 2025
WHERE: Bath House Cultural Center (White Rock Lake), Dallas
WEB: echotheatre.org
