
Photos by Marisa Valdes
By Aaron Krause
During Mackenzie Raine Kirkman’s provocative new play, Four Coloring, a character draws a rifle during a contest to redesign the American flag. Why? Because a rifle is what immediately comes to mind for her when she thinks about the United States of America.
Would it be proper to include the weapon in a redesigned flag? What does the American flag stand for? Is it time for a new one? What is a flag’s purpose and what should it include? Is America a “brand?”
Without providing easy answers, these are some of the questions that Kirkman poses in her new piece, which is receiving a realistic and riveting professional production in Miami Lakes. The roughly one-hour, intermission-less mounting by the absurdist and experimental South Florida live theater company LakehouseRanchDotPNG runs for six performances.
Under company artistic director/co-founder Brandon Urrutia’s astute direction, four talented performers demonstrate impressive naturalism as they bring a quartet of distinct characters to convincing life. These performers are perhaps in their 20s, and if their strong performances in Four Coloring are any indications, they have a bright, long future ahead of them. Certainly, those of us who care about live theater must feel good knowing that such young, promising, and talented performers exist and represent the future of the art form.
The cast members are Lewis Otamendi, Gabriel del Portal, Charisma Jolly, and Richard Lewis.
Four Coloring is a fast-paced play. As a matter of fact, it may remind you of an M. Night Shyamalan suspense film and/or Reginald Rose’s gripping jury room drama, Twelve Angry Men.
True, the stakes are not exactly life or death in Four Coloring, as they are in Rose’s masterpiece. Still, a sense of dread hangs over Four Coloring’s characters. And the action seems to hurtle toward a heart-stopping conclusion in this play by Kirkman, LakehouseRanchDotPNG’s resident playwright. But that ending never comes. In fact, the play’s conclusion seems awkward and unsatisfying. However, absurdist plays such as this one can lack a clear beginning and end. Absurdism in live theater focuses on the absurdity of human existence. Often, absurdist plays feature non-linear plots, repetitive dialogue, and surreal elements. Absurdist plays explore man’s desire for meaning in a seemingly meaningless world.
Four Coloring, and this production of it, appear to take place in present day or some future year/decade in America. However, an exact time, city, and locale are never clear. The sole setting is a mostly sparse room furnished only with black chairs, walls and desks. The darkness lends an appropriately ominous aura to the action, heightening the suspense.
With the uncertainties and anxieties that another Trump term brings, this is an apt time to stage Kirkman’s stimulating and mystifying play. It begins when four young artists arrive in a room to participate in a contest focused around re-designing the American flag. One character claims his company “assigned” him to partake in the competition. Another character says, “It was all on social media last year. A contest for this uhm…opportunity. You know like along with our portfolio applications and stuff…”
“Application? I didn’t apply. I was requested,” yet another character claims.
It is never clear who is running the contest, why they are holding it now, and why these four individuals are the contestants.
So, with scant information about the particulars, the characters arrive in the dark room with only a few small windows. Rules appear on a projector screen. For instance, they instruct, “Design the new American Flag,” and at another point, the rules change to “Design the new American Flag that looks different from the current one, disregard the 1818 flag act.”
Soon, mysterious things happen. For example, if an artist leaves the room for any reason, any path he or she takes leads him or her right back to the contest’s room. At another point, we hear the doors seemingly automatically lock and we infer that they remain bolted.
The implication: These people are not going anywhere until they get it right, whatever that means. If an artist’s design is “wrong,” a red light illuminates and a buzzer simultaneously beeps. During the piece’s many moments of silence, it is so quiet that we can hear the characters breathing and their pencils moving. At one point, we hear the tick tock of a clock.
As you watch the characters hard at work, you wonder what they are thinking about beyond their task at hand. Who organized this thing? Why is this happening? When will I get out of here? Help!
Eventually, things grow heated and the characters argue with each other, and stand almost nose to nose. These people become like the angry, trapped jurors in Rose’s drama. For that play, Rose did not give them specific names, referring to them only as “Juror 1,” “Juror 2,” “Juror 3,” etc. Similarly, in Four Coloring, Kirkman named them only by the color of their costume. And, so, we spend about an hour with “Red,” “White,” “Blue,” and “Other.” Symbolically, it is fitting that the characters’ names correspond to the flag’s colors. The characters’ anonymity (we learn next to nothing about them) also suggests that whoever organized this contest wanted a random sample of citizens to gauge how the average citizen feels about the American flag.
While we learn almost nothing about the characters, their demeanors, at least in the beginning, symbolize your average 21st century aloof, isolated young person. When the first two characters arrive, they sit a distance from each other, each in their own world, and not communicating. They have not introduced themselves, and they do not look like they intend to. Similarly, many of us bury our faces in our cell phones, we communicate with others through texting and email, and demand instant gratification. Further, we do not take time to actually look at one another and listen to each other. Yelling, arguing, and talking over each other seems to be the preferred method of communicating instead of speaking politely.
In Four Coloring, one of the characters is particularly rude. She approaches another person, rips a page out of his sketchbook, and takes it for herself, as though the sketchbook’s owner said she could borrow a piece of paper. During the divisive time during which we live, we can be similarly nasty and rude to each other.
Urrutia’s direction establishes and maintains the right amount of tension considering these characters’ circumstances.
The director, and this cast, rely not only on spoken words, but moments of silence to convey what the characters are thinking and feeling. The actors succeed as an ensemble and at creating believable, distinct characters. When they are drawing, some lean into their paper. Their posture suggests the kind of intense concentration that a serious student with hopes of getting into, perhaps, an Ivy League school displays.
Otamendi’s character, Red, is often the peacemaker. And the performer conveys a believable inclination toward stepping in to resolve conflicts. Otamendi also convincingly imbues Red with an intellectual air that he conveys without coming across as arrogant, but perhaps pedantic, as another character describes him. Mostly, though, Red comes across as an enthusiastic and bright individual who has an easy time expressing himself.
With nose rings, earrings, and a tattoo on his chest, Lewis’s White comes across as an aloof, rebellious individual. And his manner implies that he can be curt and impolite. At times, his eyes narrow, and dart from one side to the next, suggesting a suspicious, wary individual who does not trust others. But Lewis’s White is also flamboyant at times, one of his few redeeming qualities.
Portal carries a credibly unassuming air as Blue, although his character can ratchet up his intensity when someone provokes him.
Portal’s Blue stands in stark contrast to Jolly’s Other, an impulsive, loud, and aggressive individual who is quick to anger and arguing.
Erin Proctor designed the costumes, whose colors correspond to the characters’ names. Obviously “Other” is not a color, but her black costume befits her dark personality.
Leonardo Urbina’s realistic lighting illuminates performers at appropriate times, and turns unmistakably red when one or more artists err with their drawings.
Indy Sulliero designed the simple, dark set, which is enclosed enough to create a claustrophobic feel. Diana Vargas operates the projector, which indicates the rules for the artists.
During its young theatrical lifetime so far, LakehouseRanchDotPNG has proven to be a bold theater company unafraid to produce meaty, avant-garde and relevant fare. In fact, Lakehouse, founded in 2022, won the Silver Palm Award for Outstanding New/Emerging Theater Company in 2023.
Undoubtedly, this is a group to watch and a welcome addition to the rich, strong South Florida live theatrical landscape.
Four Coloring by Mackenzie Raine Kirkman from LakehouseRanchDotPNG performing at Main Street Players’ theater, 6812 Main St. in Miami Lakes; Shows 8 p.m. Jan. 25, 26, 31 and Feb. 1, as well as 2 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 2.Tickets https://www.lakehouseranchdotpng.com/tickets/#/productions-view or https://www.lakehouseranchdotpng.com/contact/