Phillyist Reviews... Incoming

At some point during Act II of Incoming, the fourth wall is broken. A few scenes later, it's broken again. I'd been okay with the dream sequences up to that point, but breaking the fourth wall felt obtrusive and out of place, especially this late in the game. And that's where the play would have lost me, if the material outside of these scenes had been weaker. Fortunately, playwright Kathy Anderson created a cast of thoroughly likable characters and a plot inventive and entertaining enough that I was able to ignore, if not forgive, the two clumsy addresses to the audience. Besides, this is a world premiere: there's still the possibility of improvement.

Incoming focuses on Liz (Leigh Mallonee), a lesbian who has recently returned home to her partner, Sally (Megan Slater), after eight months spent walking the Appalachian Trail, a journey prompted by the announcement of Sally's "experimental" pregnancy. Not only does she come home to a full-term pregnancy, she also comes home to a dying father (Mike Hagan), who is actually being tended to by Liz's ex-lover, Lou (Mathilda McCommon), who spends most of the play stuck under the hospital bed (Gigi Naglak does an impressive job puppeting Lou's "legs" while she's trapped), which then prompts the arrival of two hospital maintenance employees (the appropriately-rhyming and absolutely scene-stealing Benjamin Kanes and Jefferson Haynes) who, according to union regulations, are pretty much helpless. If it sounds funny, that's because it is. Don't get me wrong: there are plenty of serious moments surrounding the death of Liz's dad (that's also where the strange, fourth-wall defying monologues came in), but where Incoming really excels is in its comedic moments: Sally's inversion table, Lou's disembodied legs, head, and hand, and the maintenance crew's never-ending attempts to circumvent union rules to free the rest of her. Despite the over-the-top situations, it's these scenes that seem the most real and human. The more dramatic scenes in the show didn't always work as well (some did, but they were less consistent).

In all, Incoming was definitely an entertaining, well-performed piece. But the occasional dramatically awkward moment kept me from enjoying the play as much as I'd enjoyed previous performances by the Philadelphia Theatre Workshop.