A Vast Wreck

In the small space that is the Theatre of NOTE, catty corner to Amoeba Records in Hollywood, the current show explores humanity through a bastard of a character who gains our sorrow as he traverses life full of opportunities not belonging to him. In this dark and deadpan world, where no serendipity can exist, love and forgiveness can be still found.

In Vast Wreck, we follow the all-in-one protagonist/antagonist, Peter Gibbs (Mark McClain Wilson), through his life from teen to elder and beyond death in a triptych narrated by the Playwright (Grace Eboigbe). Gibbs leaves behind a sordid past in his hometown of New Hampshire after the passing of his incestuous mother (Gabby Sanalitro) and unknowingly meeting his one true love (Rebecca Rhae Larsen) to pursue a life of ambitious ideals with his skin deep wife – Knockout (Claudia Choi). He only returns to home to find an eerie dark tourism surrounding his past (similar to the tourism of Hurricane Katrina) and nothing left for him in the mundane world.

Director Dara Weinberg (also LAist contributor) has formed a tight-knit cast of powerful actors who play out Richard Calliban’s script. Weinberg’s direction is of the Theatre of Absurd school accented with cyberpunk tendencies. Her style follows down the lines of Lars Von Trier (Dogville) and Baz Luhurmann (Moulin Rouge!). One audience member described it as “theatre, theatre. [Watching it] I left politeness aside. It was Beckett meets Neil Simon.”