Stage Review - The Lost Object (Baker Theater Workshop)
Stage Review - The Lost Object
Presented By: Baker Theater Workshop @ ReAct Theatre Studios - Seattle, WA
Show Run: April 19 - April 20, 2025
Date Reviewed: Saturday, April 19, 2025 (Opening Night)
Run Time: 2 Hours (including a 15 minute intermission)
Reviewed By: Greg Heilman
There’s no question about the vibrance of Seattle’s live theatre scene. Perhaps it’s not quite as bright and energetic as it was pre-Covid, and while theatre in the area still has a lot to offer, from large scale touring productions of popular musicals, to locally produced plays and musicals, both familiar and new, all the way to the community and school level, it does look a little different after the pandemic, the large theaters aren’t investing in as many new and untested productions, so it’s less likely we’ll see the next Aladdin or Come From Away anytime soon. This is where the smaller theatres and companies are picking up the slack, though. There is no shortage of talented songwriters, authors, screenwriters, and playwrights in the Pacific Northwest, and sometimes all they need is someone, or a group of someones, to take a chance and provide the time and energy to allow these writers to present their work in a constructive setting, to get it in front of an audience. Only in this way will we be able to produce the next Keiko Green or Justin Huertas and have Seattle become the true proving ground and source for quality world class entertainment that it deserves to be. Thankfully, these groups do exist in the area, one of them being the Baker Theater Workshop, an organization with the goal of “(nurturing) new works of theater in their early phases, and perform with the goal of showing what’s possible and not what has been polished.” It is within the auspices of this vision that Baker Theater Workshop presented the new play from Abbie Cohen this past weekend titled The Lost Object.
The play tackles a lot, but then again, it’s an autobiographical story about all that Abbie Cohen herself has gone through, which is, in itself, a lot. The Lost Object is about transition and transformation, about how a young Texas Presbyterian named David wrestles with a physical dissonance in the body he was born with and makes the physical, psychological, and spiritual transformation to an older, wiser, and more experienced Jewish woman named Abbie, with more than a few stops in between. Those stops are presented in The Lost Object through a combination of narrative recollections and dramatic reenactments. There’s no doubt that the play itself is raw, and just as Baker Theater Workshop calls out in its mission, the piece is far from polished. But the structure is there, and I can see where Abbie is going with it, and what it can be after some time and incubation. And being able to present it in front of an audience so early in the process has to put her one step ahead of many other playwrights at the same stage in their writing. The play is told with a cast of six actors, and with two versions of Abbie. First is Violet DeVille as present day Abbie, the narrator of the show, who opens both acts with narratives depicting her backstory first as young David and then as Allison, her first stop along the way to becoming Abbie. If Violet is the narrative Abbie, Cassondra Parkerson is the dramatic one who portrays her through the years, first as David, then as Allison, and then Bracha, the Orthodox Jew wife of Mendel. Kalli Allen plays multiple roles, as does John DuGaw, and Beth Shields, each supporting the storytelling through their character portrayals, whether it’s David’s first Jewish friend he meets in New York (Kalli as Naomi) who helps him finally determine that he’s not comfortable in his male body, or David’s, then Allison’s mother (Beth as Delores) who is resistant first to her son asking to be recognized as a woman and then, even more so, to her daughter asking for support in her becoming a Jew, or even Bracha’s husband (John as Mendel). Rounding out the cast is Baker Theater Workshop Organizer Peter Temes as Rabbi Hillel, who provides guidance to Allison about how she, as a transgender woman, can best fit within the Orthodox Jewish community, or whether she can, in fact, fit in at all.
Each act is generally structured the same, beginning with Violet, as present day Abbie, recollecting stories, emotions, and feelings from her past. First, the stories are David’s, and she provides a summary of the events through school that led him to New York, which she wraps up by saying (and I’m paraphrasing here) “This is where David’s life ends, and Allison’s begins”. But it’s not quite that simple, it takes until the end of the first act for David to finally come to the conclusion that a change has to be made. It’s a bit confusing, though, the implication being that the backstory given by Violet as the narrator leads up to the point when life as David ends, so perhaps a change of wording might be in order, though I understand the desire to have something dramatic to end the narration on. Once Violet steps away, it’s up to Cassondra to portray this character through the years and stages of life and gender. The play moves from scene to scene, at times with temporal jumps in between, jumps that tend to seem disjointed. I’d like to see this with a running narration, meaning that rather than just have Violet provide backstory and narration at the beginning of each act and at the end of the show, if she were to remain on stage and provide insight in between these scenes, it would provide much needed continuity and flow. There are some real bright spots in the play, in Act 1, a scene between David and Kalli’s Naomi, a tender moment in which Cassondra’s David opens up about his feelings and discomfort in the body he was born with. The scene ends beautifully, but it takes a twisty and emotional road to get there. David monologues for quite a bit of time, unsolicited in the context of the scene, something that could possibly be better delivered by a narrator, and there are earlier parts of the scene that bounce quickly from sweetness to anger, or caring to frustration for no apparent reason. Another example is the Shabbat with Cassondra’s Bracha and John’s Mendel, a very sweet scene between a husband and wife, breaking bread by candlelight. These are scenes that show the potential of the piece, and with some time and attention, I can see the entirety of it smoothing out quite a bit.
There is a lot packed up in The Lost Object, and that theme is stitched nicely through the piece, how each stage of Allie’s life has its own associated lost object. Further, with each step along the way, from David to Allison to Bracha to Allie, there is the potential for a lot of emotion, and I expect that as this play matures, more of that will come out. For now, and perhaps because of the choppiness of the scene transitions, the ups and downs of the mood of the dialogue, and the delivery that feels rote at times, the emotion just doesn’t hit. Again, though, a few changes here and there and I can see this play fall into place nicely. Design wise, I like where the play is at, and Peter Temes as Director has a good handle on how to tell this story.
The Lost Object, the autobiographical play that presents Abbie Cohen’s journey of transition, first from biological man to woman, and then from Protestant to Jew, was presented by Baker Theater Workshop this past weekend at the ReAct Studios in Seattle. The play fits right in with Baker’s mission, it’s a new work in the early stages of development, it’s raw and for sure there are some areas of improvement, but the foundation is there, and with a little maturity I can see The Lost Object taking shape and becoming everything it can be. And thankfully, with groups like Baker Theater Workshop out there willing to put up plays like this, playwrights like Abbie have the opportunity to present their early in development work to an audience, receiving crucial feedback, which can only help them mature their work, and master their craft, that much quicker. I look forward to seeing what this piece becomes over the next few years and what else this company presents to help highlight some of the amazing playwrights this area has to offer.
The Lost Object, presented by the Baker TheaterWorkshop and performed at ReAct Studios in Seattle, ran for one weekend only, with performances on April 19 and 20. For more information on the company, and this production, visit https://www.bakertheaterworkshop.com/.
Photo credit: Peter Temes
