BWW Reviews: Wilbury Group's IT'S A SPACESHIP NOW Is a Bumpy Ride to Nowhere

New play development is one of the most essential and necessary elements to a thriving theatrical world. Playwrights must keep writing plays and their plays must be given the time to grow, develop, change, morph and grow again. And theater companies must be able and willing to give those plays the opportunity to do so. They must provide the incubator, where the perfect creative environment can be created to foster, nurture and support the development of young and growing works of theatrical art.

In Rhode Island, The Wilbury Group is one theater that is taking up that mantle, with its Emerging Artists and New Works Series. They are providing just what new works need, offering to shepherd them through the process, from readings to full-scale productions. One such production is their current show, the inaugural production of the New Works Series, It's a Spaceship Now, conceived, written and performed by Stuart Wilson.

Spaceship concerns Stu, a man of undetermined age, who seems to be living the stereotypical slacker lifestyle. He hasn't done much, if anything, with his life and we find him sitting around his apartment, decorated mostly with items he pulled out of the trash or otherwise saved from being thrown away. When he comes into contact with a Soviet space rocket that has found its way into his backyard, Stu comes up with the idea of a lifetime: he will fly the rocket into space. The play, a one-man show, tracks Stu's journey as he puts in the work to turn the aging rocket into a space-worthy flying machine. While Stu's flying machine takes him into space, this play never really gets off the ground.

One of the biggest problems with It's a Spaceship Now is that it plays things safe and easy, relying on easy jokes and sight gags. It also keeps things very much on the surface. While we hear some hints about Stu's issues with his father and brother, we never really find out what that's all about. We never really get to know Stu on a deeper level, never find out what's at the root of his family issues. Or his issues with his own life, undiscovered potential, self-doubt, etc. The play would be much better served if it focused on these kinds of elements, real human issues that an audience can really relate to and feel something about, rather than random jokes and terrible musical numbers.

The musical numbers are a symptom of another big problem. The show doesn't seem to know what it really wants to be, so it's not consistently good at anything. Sometimes, it wants to be a musical, so Stu breaks out into song, but only one of them is actually funny or entertaining. The others have silly, not-really-funny lyrics and don't really do anything to further the story. So why include them at all? The show would be much better if the songs were removed and the script stuck to Stu telling his story.

At other moments, the show seems like it wants to be avant-garde or something akin to performance art. It all comes across as clunky and pointless. It seems like a group of people sat around a living room one night and said, "I know! Let's have an actor make coffee on stage and serve it to the audience! Wouldn't that be cool?!?" It's not. It's just pointless and a waste of time. Ditto for the moment of, "I know! An interpretive dance about making breakfast!" It's another strange moment that doesn't do anything to further the story.

Maybe the worst problem is that it's all such a waste of a really fine, talented actor who could make this one-man show really fly if it didn't keep bogging him down meaningless frivolity. Since they are the same person, the writer that is Stuart Wilson needs to give the actor Stuart Wilson better material. Maybe Wilson just needs to trust himself more. Maybe he needs to stop trying to be so gosh-darn funny and irreverent and just tell us a really good story, letting his charisma and acting talent carry the day.

There are moments when Wilson flashes real brilliance in his comic timing and delivery. Everyone in the audience, myself included, laughed out loud more than a few times. His combination of that comic talent with plenty of charisma and mischevious deviousness can't be denied. He also has moments when he allows real, deeply felt emotion to come to the surface. In those moments, the audience is touched and cares for and about Stu and his journey. If the script actually gave Stu more of a journey, a thematic and dramatic one, I have no doubt that Wilson could pull it off. Hopefully, this won't be the last version of this new work and the future ones will focus more on deepening the story and stripping away all the nonsense. It is to the benefit of everyone who loves or works in the theater community for Spaceship and the new work development program at Wilbury Group to really take off.

The inaugural offering from the Wilbury Theatre Group's New Works Development program, It's A Spaceship Now runs at 7:30pm Thursdays-Saturdays June 20-29, 2013. Tickets are just $15 regular, $10 for students and seniors. For more info visit www.thewilburygroup.org/buy-tickets.

Pictured: Stuart Wilson. Photo Courtesy of The Wilbury Group.

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