Phillyist Reviews... The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe

This is my first review of an 1812 Productions play, but I've long been interested in the company. They are, after all, Philadelphia's only all-comedy theatre company. And as much as I love high-brow, intellectual, Great Works of Theatre™, sometimes, I just want to laugh.

And so I was optimistic about The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe. It was originally written for the inimitable Lily Tomlin and this production stars one of Philly's favorite funny ladies, the also-inimitable Jennifer Childs. I'd seen clips of Tomlin performing the piece from her made-for-tv production, but had never seen or read a fully-mounted production of the one-woman show.

So I had no way of knowing how overlong the play is. Clocking in at just under two and a half hours, intermission included, the production showcases both Childs' incredible talent for memorization and the undeniable truth that some plays are just way, way too long.

The script is a little dated, full of references to new age lifestyles that have long-since become mainstream. (The audience is clearly meant to chuckle at the mere mention of tofu.) And for the most part, that's okay. Despite the era-appropriate in-jokes, there's still enough universality to the piece (the signs of intelligent life, it turns out, often look a lot like human compassion), and enough humor, that these less-than-contemporary jokes are usually forgivable. The fact that Childs is the one making them helps a great deal, too. She's a truly dynamite performer, and a joy to watch in any performance she's in. In The Search..., she employs her wide range of character voices adeptly, giving each of the (ten? fifteen?) characters she plays his or her own posture, accent, and therefore, personality - all without the aid of costumes, makeup, or many props. It's no small feat (as the sweat stains she bore by halfway through the first act can attest), but this is an actress who's up for the task.

Unfortunately, even she can only do so much. As mentioned before, the play is quite long, and would be even if Childs had more people to share the stage with her. Most of the first act progresses at a quick clip, but suddenly, halfway through the second act, we find ourselves in another play completely: the saga of Lynn, from her initiation into the feminist movement of the 1960s and 70s, through her experiments with lesbianism, and into her new age marriage and its eventual, inevitable, decline. The action of the piece, through no fault of the production itself, slows to a crawl while the audience gets to spend half an hour watching what amounts to little more than navel-gazing, all the while wondering if they didn't return to the wrong theatre after intermission. It's not that this segment is bad; it's just that its length almost makes you forget about all that came before it, and confused by all that comes after. The worst part of it is that even if you could get permission to edit the script for your production, it would be almost impossible to cut this sequence of scenes down: they help tie all the characters encountered previously together, ensuring that the play is seen as one piece, rather than a series of unrelated vignettes. Almost all of the show's "a-ha!" moments occur during the Lynn sequence, and yet it's far from satisfying. In fact, it left me spent and in need of a beer by the time it concluded. A disappointing result from what might have been a fabulous performance.

In all, The Search...'s script is far too flawed to justify its length. And the more's the pity, because Jennifer Childs' performance in the show is outstanding. It's worth seeing, sure, but you may discover that you want to leave at intermission. You won't feel like you missed out at all.

Photo by John Flak, courtesy of 1812. The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe runs through October 28.