<b>THE OREGON TRAIL</b> Alleyway Theatre SpeakupWNY | Buffalo NY and Buffalo News

Through May 28
THE OREGON TRAIL Alleyway Theatre

For generations, movies and TV shows about backstage life have been staples of the entertainment venues, “42nd Street” or “A Star is Born.”
Why not video games?
That’s why “The Oregon Trail” is on stage in the Alleyway Theatre, a human version of characters on a computer screen.
Bekah Brunstetter’s play has some dangling threads, perhaps leaving a path to a sequel and what would be more Hollywood?
We meet Jane (Renee Landrigan) and Then Jane (Elise Vullo) and are never sure their tendency to depression reflects a genetic heritage because we’re never actually sure that Then Jane made it past the Oregon border from the trail, surviving the hazards of the long walk, like bad water..
The story goes back to a time when settlers went west through Indian Country and as far as California or Oregon, with no qualms about who already lived there.
In this case, in 1848, not everyone made it.
Then Jane, dad Clancy (John Profeta) and sister Mary Anne (Sue McCormack) head west from Independence, Mo., along a trail marked by ruts in the prairie and graves, hoping to catch up with a wagon train.
This isn’t heading along an Interstate, with occasional stops at the Golden Arches.
Then Jane doesn’t want to leave where she was raised and present Jane just doesn’t like life.
It’s not unusual to describe a character in a play as down or depressed, here that’s central to the story.
There’s a computer voice threaded throughout the play, asking about continuing to move along the cyber-Oregon Trail.
This isn’t Shakespeare, with Chorus standing there to tell the tale of how Henry V’s tale began.
Instead, it’s a disembodied voice urging the characters to continue.
Both Janes need more than casual direction.
I can understand the premise of the play and why the Alleyway is doing it.
Director Chris J. Handley certainly has some strong performers, particularly Landrigan and Profeta.
It’s just…
The play is about 95 minutes long, without an intermission and perhaps a little more exposition would have helped make the story clearer.
It’s not unusual for a playwright to deliberately leave an ending like some TV show ending the season and looking toward the next.
Still, as a non-gamer, I would like to have some elisions removed.
That includes the clearly suggested family relationship between Then Jane and current Jane.
Since this is a video game from decades ago, there are tech limitations to the disembodied voice pushing the story but the techniques of this production are effective.
We haven’t yet reached the stage of computerized performers on a full stage but might be close.
Still, there is no substitute to live performers on a real stage, although with a computerized Chorus.
“The Oregon Trail” is along the path on which the theater is going.

A.W.