Stage Review - Kodachrome (Technically Thespians)

Stage Review - Kodachrome
Presented By: Technically Thespians @ SecondStory Repertory - Redmond, WA
Show Run: April 24 - April 26, 2026
Date Reviewed: Friday, April 24, 2026 (opening night)
Run Time: 2 Hours (including a 15-minute intermission)
Reviewed by: Sameer Arshad

Have you ever considered the possibility that the dead are grieving us?

We are so used to the idea of mourning the dead that we never flip the lens around. What if the people we've lost are mourning the versions of us that were not yet bereaved? What if the dead are not ready to leave our community and preferred to keep observing us? What changes about how we restrict ourselves once we transition into death?

These are among the questions posed by Adam Szymkowicz's Kodachrome, presented in a special three-performance-only engagement at SecondStory Repertory, produced in partnership with a new theatre-company named Technically Thespians, and directed by Jake (AKA Jane) Mattinson (they/she).

Welcome to Colchester, Connecticut, a small town where everybody knows each other, and the pursuit of love takes up as much time and space as it needs. Our guide is Suzanne, the town photographer, who seems to have captured a little bit of everyone's souls as she documents her community with her camera. There are touching moments where the photographer seems to know her subjects better than they know themselves. Through her lens, we are drawn into deep explorations of mismatched expectations, yearning, self-doubt, self-recovery, death, and how people think about their own mortality.

Lauren Go delivers an achingly layered, deeply compelling performance as Suzanne, portraying a character who is perpetually growing, even at the moments when one would expect growth to have stopped. As our guide through Colchester, Lauren carries the emotional architecture of the entire play on her shoulders. There is something deeply moving about watching Lauren navigate those moments of recognition and revelation, where the photographer knows her subject better than the subject knows themselves. Lauren skillfully delivers this emotional perspective to us with a quiet authority that never overreaches.

Carlos Barrera doubles as Martin the perfume maker and Harold the history professor. As Martin, he delivers an excellent portrayal of a distracted, unyielding man who can mix essences together but can never rearrange his own essence towards what can actually happen for him. As Harold, Carlos brings an incredible stoicism and patience to the role, as if he has internalized all that knowledge of history to prepare his character for waiting for something good to return to him.

Mason Corey brings a disarming precociousness laced with boyish charm to his portrayal of Robert, capturing a young person so deeply convinced that he knows how to be a good person, leaning so far into it he makes bad decisions even in the pursuit of goodness.

Tina Huang doubles as Florence and Jen the waitress, demonstrating impressive range across two very different emotional registers. As Florence, we watch someone wrestle with the realization that sleepwalking through life will let the wrong thing wash all over you until it's too late to take it off. As Jen, she flows like water around the strong personalities in her space, leading from behind, navigating towards what she wants while being graceful about what she doesn't.

Erica Guthan plays Renee in a sublime portrayal of a flawed character you find yourself rooting for, someone clumsily striving for goodness even though she knows she's not completely equipped for what she wants, trusting herself to grow into the moment. We are with her as she goes through this journey of growth and her complex arc is one of the most compelling aspects of this production.

Rizo Rakhmanov delivers a carefully calibrated performance as Charlie the hardware store owner, building a tough, gruff exterior around such a tender interior that we are drawn in moment by moment, discovering alongside him that you cannot rush happiness, and that every stage of your life demands its own patience before you are ready for the next one.

Jason Davis brings disarming charisma to Earl the gravedigger, a seemingly simple character capable of immense wisdom. The care and grace he shows to every other character represents some of the most beautiful and heartbreaking moments of the show; a person who holds love for everybody even though he doesn't receive as much love as he should.

Catherine Pidgeon brings a strikingly honest portrayal of Georgette the mystery novelist, a conflicted and realistic character who makes big permanent changes to her life. It's very scary to ask for what you need when other people have to change their own lives to give it to you. It's even scarier to understand the limitations of what you wanted changed and how fluid the mind can be in defining what it needs in the moment.

Alycia Bhargava gives a quietly powerful performance as Heather the florist, probably the strongest character in the show, embodying someone unafraid to give her heart away, and when it breaks, already getting back up, fortifying herself so gracefully and subtly that we have to admire that sense of resilience.

The projections progressively painting scenes on the walls as Suzanne used her camera were a very strong visual element that really worked. This is a play about capturing moments, and the photography motif served us well. There were also many tender, quiet moments of emotion throughout this play. In a world where everybody is excited about loud booming Shakespearean monologues and intense living-room drama scenes where people are screaming at the top of their lungs, it was refreshing to see all this conflict and emotion and grace happening slowly and quietly on stage. Not everybody wants shrieking dramatic tension splattered all over the room. Sometimes quiet devastation between people, making small strong moves, is more powerful than anything else you want to see on stage. I commend Jake Mattinson for choosing restraint in their directing, a very difficult thing to do as a director. The result is a pacing that reels us in and takes a silent grip on us without us knowing, allowing us to inhabit each character's emotional space in a way that is fulfilling for the audience.

Sometimes we assign work to the dead. Even after they pass away, they are doing work for us in society. Sometimes they die in ways that keep inspiring us to live our fullest lives. Sometimes the words they leave behind become a source of energy for us. Sometimes their memory is so strong that it prevents us from moving on. Kodachrome asks us to sit with all of this and to consider the possibility that grief is not a one-way street between the living and the dead, but a shared condition, an ongoing conversation that neither side is ready to let go of.

A small-town photographer. A community of quiet yearnings. Love in every stage of its life cycle. Kodachrome is a beautifully restrained meditation on love, loss and the ordinary moments that only reveal their weight after the shutter clicks for the last time.

Kodachrome, by Adam Szymkowicz, directed by Jake Mattinson, runs at SecondStory Repertory through April 26. For more information, including ticket availability and sales, visit https://www.secondstoryrep.org/.

Photo Credit: Ananya Bhat