Review: Executive Function

When a theater company exists solely to produce new and original scripts, it walks a narrow and precarious line.

But it is also a path that is rife with reward when the synthesis between script and production meshes.

Rough Magic Productions is a company that doesn’t shy away from challenges. And the company’s current staged effort — “Executive Function, Or a Story About a Dog Named Rudolph” — is a perfect example of why it is necessary for such a company as Rough Magic to exist.

Playwright Matt Miller’s script about Michael (Clay Stevens), a young man torn between reality and fantasy, is an intricately crafted piece that probes the validity of common existence.

The product of a doting mother and an abusive father, Michael has grown into an insecure adult.

But he is also an adult who has an executive function — the human ability to recognize changing situations and handle stresses, allowing an individual to exist in a societal environment — that is impaired because of a tumor on his brain.

This deficiency results in Michael’s inability to behave appropriately on a consistent basis.

Miller’s script establishes Michael as a budding children’s author and artist whose fantasy creations of tinfoil knights and coffee cup princesses are drawn from an imaginary world where he is able to communicate and be accepted.

Katie Streeter portrays Sam, the rather flirtatious woman about whom Michael fantasizes, with Ben Tibbels as Andy, Michael’s friend and partner in a bookstore.

The dark, violent side of Michael — the tumor that is destroying him — is played by Rob Burt.

Miller’s play is full of pendulum mood swings, taking the audience from comedy to sobering severity and back again, until ultimately Michael must confront his own malignancy.

The script has some rough edges and could use smoothing out, but generally Miller has produced a dramatic piece that methodically builds toward its tragic climax.

Under director Kathryn Cover’s guidance, the play’s cast delivers some nicely forged performances.

Stevens does an exceptional job as the perplexed Michael, taking a complicated persona and making him utterly believable.

Also pleasing is Streeter’s effort, with the actress ably producing a characterization that communicates how Sam’s extroversion is really a defense for her fear of abandonment.

Tibbels and Burt provide strong support, with William Heafer, Larry Mota and Deb Waechter performing in a variety of assorted roles.

“Executive Function” is a theatrical piece that has some real potential. It’s going to make the viewer think and reflect.

And it is something of which Rough Magic should be proud.