By Martin F. Kohn
So strong is the physical narrative – storytelling by action, stance and facial expression – in Tim Edward Rhoze's production of Patrick Meyers' mountain-climbing drama "K2" that it hardly requires words. Indeed, besides an initial epithet of stunned dismay, its first few minutes are wordless, yet the audience learns a great deal.
There are these two mountain climbers in a howling wind. One climber has fallen and is badly hurt. The other has climbed down clumsily and painfully to join him. They are on a ledge, a small, flat place. Exploring their surroundings, the ambulatory man finds that above them and on either side is the icy, blue, nearly flat face of the mountain they call K2; at the downstage edge is a sheer drop.
Then, discovering they've both survived, he cries out "We're alive!" and then must catch his breath in this thinnest of atmospheres.
As openings go, this one's a grabber and the play is not about to let go, thanks largely to James Bowen and John Manfredi as the mountaineers, Harold (the one with a broken leg) and Taylor; Rhoze's meticulous direction, and the mountain itself, designed by Daniel C. Walker.
Predominantly vertical, the mountain is also a thing of outcroppings and angles, toeholds and facets. Although it's a gripping, suspenseful life-or-death story, "K2" is itself multi-faceted. As they consider their possibilities and take action, Harold and Taylor engage in wide-ranging, character-revealing conversation.
Harold, the more voluble of the two, is a physicist and something of a philosopher; he is devoted to his wife and son. Taylor may be no less complicated but he's not as eloquent. A prosecuting attorney, he sees things more as black or white; he is single and whatever the opposite of romantic is.
Still, for all Harold's talk about physics and theology, the play has only three possible outcomes: both survive; they both die; one makes it and the other doesn't. (Don't worry about the fourth outcome, the existential one where both men are left on the ledge in perpetual ambiguity.)
Therefore, during much of the time Bowen is speaking, Manfredi is tying knots, testing ropes, seeking footholds and climbing up the set. It's impossible to look away. The playwright appears to do his speaking man no favor, but just as he is Taylor's anchor on his climbing maneuvers, Harold anchors the play as well: what he says is necessary for the action to proceed as it does.
And what Harold says and what Taylor does are the heat and the fuel to ignite the post-show conversations that are sure to make for an interesting ride home.
REVIEW:
'K2'
Performance Network Theatre, 120 E. Huron St., Ann Arbor. Thursday-Sunday through Feb. 7. $27-$41. 734-663-0681. http://www.performancenetwork.org.
