By Charlene Baldridge
SDUN Theatre Critic

Everyone alive has experienced the far-reaching effects of a disease named cancer. With “Song of Extinction,” ion theatre company [sic] Artistic Director Claudio Raygoza and Producing Artistic Director Glenn Paris show the courage to stage what is—a tone poem about a family whose way of dealing with the disease is to wall themselves off from reality and each other, and even from the hospitalized wife and mother who needs them most.

Presented in brief, fragmented scenes, their isolation and hers is devastating. In extremis, these people inhabit each other’s hallucinations, providing the audience momentary surcease from the relentless intensity. Kim Phan (Diep Huynh), a survivor of Cambodia’s “killing fields” where he lost everything he loved, is a sensitive high school science teacher who helps each of them.

Kim Phan realizes that 15-year-old Max Forrestal (15-year-old Matthew Alexander) is in emotional distress when he acts out in class, then comes to school late one night on the pretense of asking for help in writing his 20-page paper on extinction. Lily, Max’s mother (Robin Christ), has cancer, he hasn’t eaten for days, and his father (Tom Hall) is so intent on saving a rare Bolivian bug from extinction that he can think of little else. Developer Gill Morris (Spencer Farmer), who laughs at Max’s request to desist, is responsible for the deforestation that will kill off the endangered insect.

Lewis slips occasionally into heavy-handed messages about evil developers and the Khmer Rouge; but when it comes to avoidance and human failure, her emotionally isolated characters poetically deliver her more important messages.

Under Raygoza’s taut direction, the acting company is magnificent. In his still performance, Hall—usually cast in overtly emotional roles—captures the agony of Max’s distracted dad, Ellery, a biologist who’s been researching in Bolivia since he and Lily were newlyweds. Hall and Alexander bear resemblance to one another, and Alexander is an extraordinary young actor. Christ’s 11th hour scene with Huynh is among the play’s most affecting. Dylan J. Seaton portrays Dr. Dorsey, an inexperienced oncologist.

This award-winning play is buoyed by fantasy, poetry and the sensitive support of Raygoza’s sound design, which incorporates birdsong, music by Bach and Dvorak (Max studies viola, and Alexander plays several minor scales at the top of the play), folk melodies, and music composed especially for the play. Karin Filijan is lighting designer, Paris is responsible for costumes and makeup, and Raygoza and Matt Scott are scenic designers.

Lewis received the 2009 Steinberg/American Theatre Critics New Play Award for “Song of Extinction.” She hails originally from Oregon, lived in Los Angeles, and heads next for Princeton for a 2010-2011 Hodder Fellowship in playwriting.

“Song of Extinction”
Thursdays and Fridays, 8 p.m.
Saturdays, 4 p.m.
ion theatre company’s BLKBox @ 6th & Penn
3704 6th Ave.
Hillcrest
Tickets: $25
iontheatre.com
600-5020