Next up in Louisville KY’s Humana Festival
It may be true that the older one gets, the more one things about what might have been, how life might have turned out had we made a different decision.
In “This Random World” at Actors Theatre, playwright Steven Dietz tells a number of stories in which characters are busy considering the path their lives have taken. There’s also a story about taking a chance, doing something out of the ordinary to make a mark on the world, or just to have an experience before you die.
Which is not to say the play is morbid. It does deal with death. One character mistakenly places his own obituary in a public place, and must convince others he’s really who he says he is. Another obsesses over a last will, making sure that everything’s taken care of in the event of her death. That brings about the best line in the production, which was a great laugh line — “All you have to do is stop breathing and I’ll take care of everything else.”
A mother seeks to take a “last” trip without telling her children.
There’s also a great story of a missed love connections, a couple who realizes that perhaps they should not have broken up after high school, and who long to reconnect.
All this takes place in the present day, as characters deal with modern takes on love, death and regret.
This Random World is part of Actors Theatre’s 40th Humana Festival of New American Plays. The Festival continues through April 10.
