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Cicada
by Sarah McKereghan

review by Rob Avila in SF Bay Guardian, November 10, 2004

Damaged environmental activists Cicada (Sarah McKereghan) and Joe (Russell Gilland) have lived underground since Inauguration Day 2001 in an act of protest against a world-destroying regime, and they remain oblivious to all that's transpired since. They're supplied at regular intervals by Cicada's sister Iris (Maia Halperin) and her new boyfriend, would-be documentarian Reece (John Andrew Stillions), and their only other contact is with a surly, semisinister psychiatrist (Mark Rachel). Suffering, meanwhile, from their environmental ailments (pesticides and Gulf War syndrome, respectively) and the psychic effects of prolonged confinement in their converted fallout shelter, the couple appears to be going slowly bonkers. (No wonder Joe's diminutive for his partner sounds like "sicky.") As Cicada's willful and mysterious dream double (Miranda Calderon) begins finally erasing the line between fantasy and reality, we sense, ominously, an impending transformation. Ripe Theater's involving and witty drama (written by cofounder McKereghan) is an inventive, eerily prescient reflection on opposition to a mad world order. Featuring an excellent cast - buoyed by Noah Kelly's playful, always intelligent direction - its almost sci-fi ambience gains cathartic intensity in the recent election's miserable aftermath, further heightening its themes of struggle and renewal. (Avila)

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