As the Kansas Collection accelerates towards its end, The Speakeasy Society has started swinging for the fences, taking risks with their characters, their storytelling, and their world. The NoPro review of The Witch mentions that the end of that show left the story in a much stronger and more focused spot than any previous chapter. Even with a switch in story lines, The Witch and The Heart aren’t directly dependent on one another, that’s still apparent.
That focus has come as they’ve drilled down into the characters they’ve established in the previous chapters and then spun them out in some unexpected ways. The early chapters were fun and engaging, but could feel somewhat disconnected from each other. It’s clear now that they were establishing a necessary groundwork, and like any good serialized story, that groundwork has begun paying dividends as the strands are pulled together.
Indeed, this chapter begins by pulling on threads from Chapters 2, 3, and 4 (along with the Patchwork track from The Vow). Jack (Michael Bates) and Tik (Nikhil Pai) are looking for the missing Dorothy (Colleen Pulawski) and they’ve tasked you with the rescue mission which takes you into direct conflict with The Tin Man/Nick (James Cowan). Working off The Tin Man’s anger, Jack’s guilt, and Dorothy’s legend, The Heart weaves something surprising, but perfectly fitting, together.
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What begins as a mission to find and rescue Dorothy quickly turns into a dark night of the soul. Dorothy and Nick have to reckon with the decisions that led them to where they are, emotionally, as much as physically. Through their back and forth, they deconstruct a childhood icon and with the sharpness of Nick’s axe cut straight to the heart of who these characters are. And again, it all fits together, both within The Kansas Collection, but also within the understanding of The Wizard of Oz that permeates our cultural collective unconscious. Speakeasy has taken a possible reading of the story everyone knows and used it to add depth and impact to what they’re doing.
It makes for one of the more intense and emotional chapters in the whole saga. As everyone reveals more about the truth of their situations, time seems to slow as the the answers are dragged out at an excruciating pace. Then the gut punches start flying at everyone, including the audience. The cast does excellent work here, Pulawski and Cowan’s question and answer segment is a brutal minefield of disappointment and anger, but it’s Bates’ Jack who I keep coming back to. Bates mines Jack’s guilt before digging into new, unexpected layers that help ground the action in emotion.
(You’ll notice I haven’t mentioned much of Tik. That’s because, in a somewhat curious decision, he’s split off from the group with one audience member for much of the show. I can’t speak to the scene that plays out there, but it does cause that one attendee to miss out on the revelations and solid storytelling that occur elsewhere in Chapter 7.)
Ever since The Vow, there’s been a noticeable shift in The Kansas Collection. The story has gotten darker, the consequences have started to pile up, and The Speakeasy Society has steered into the turn to bring it all home. Near the end of The Heart, Dorothy says, “change comes at an enormous cost.” This show makes good on that phrase in a way that tees up the final chapters by making the stakes both more cosmic and more personal. The very hearts of these characters are at risk as they have to make choices and changes to reach the end. How high will the cost be?
The Kansas Collection: The Heart plays through November 17th in Burbank. Tickets are $30.
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