Stacy Ross guides a live audience through a Zoom gathering in Communion
COMMUNION
American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.)
Through June 27, $60
www.act-sf.org
“Can we build a true sense of community over Zoom in one evening?” Stacy Ross asks in Christopher Chen’s Communion, a live, interactive presentation from A.C.T. in San Francisco. Continuing through June 27, the seventy-minute Zoom production is hosted by the popular Bay Area actress, who has played such characters as Hedda Gabler, Malvolio, Clytemnestra, Ophelia, Candida, and Leni Riefenstahl. In Communion, she’s herself — or is she? — speaking directly into the camera from a small, cluttered room. She wears a green felt hat and braids, asking us questions, discussing bliss and tacos, and considering Zoom as a tool for intimacy.
Prior to the show, attendees are given several prompts, one involving a guiding principle you have, another a person you’ve allowed to get inside your head in a bad way. Volunteers come forward and share their answers, with Ross commiserating. Viewers are also sent to breakout rooms to talk about the idea of “communion” in smaller groups. Thus, a good part of your experience will be impacted by how much you and others choose to participate. Ross may be a consummate host, but she can control only so much of what happens.
Obie winner Chen (The Hundred Flowers Project, The Headlands) and Tony-winning director Pam MacKinnon (Clybourne Park, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) navigate through Zoom fatigue — with America opening up, is the end coming for entertainment via little onscreen boxes? — with a wink and a nod, holding back a surprise (which one of the people in my breakout room guessed). To say any more would be to say too much.
Most Zoom theater has been created as an alternative to live, in-person shows, where strangers congregate in dark spaces, suspending disbelief as they are temporarily transported to different worlds. Communion was made specifically for Zoom, challenging us to look at who we are, as individuals and as theater lovers, as we come out of a pandemic that has changed us all, for better or worse.