HOPE AND GRAVITY

The action unfolds in nine briskly-paced out-of-sequence scenes that begin inside an elevator, where we hear the fuzzy details of an elevator accident the night before - an incident that will eventually link the scenes. Each scene functions as a self-contained vignette but is also a single piece of a big puzzle with the play's characters interacting on one level, with no idea that their lives intersect on another. Their lives intersect in surprising ways that are both comical and tragic - through love, sex, poetry, dentistry, phobias, in offices, homes, and in hotel rooms. Jill longs for Steve, who's engaged to Barb, who hooks up with Peter, who's already having an affair with Nan, who's married to Marty. Meanwhile, Douglas, who teaches creative writing to Jill and Steve, meets Tanya who's hoping to get pregnant with Hal. By the time Hollinger is done with his inventive, non-sequential funny play, he's provided a narrative arc that the audience delight in piecing together themselves.