In Search of Elaina

Annette is winning at life. She has just negotiated a major promotion; her boyfriend Charles is attractive, considerate, and wealthy; their major life challenge is whether to stay in the Upper West Side or move to Greenwich Village. Then Annette receives a text: her high school boyfriend has been killed in a car accident. Her earlier life, which she has happily abandoned, comes flooding back. 

Garrett Richmond,  Aimée Fortier

Photo:  Al Foote III

Annette decides not to go to the memorial, in California, ostensibly because she'd have trouble getting back to New York in time for work on Monday. But Charles talks her into going back and then talks her into his coming along. He tells her, "I’d just like to see where you’re from." She answers, "I'm from here now!"

After a cross-country plane ride, followed by driving a long, snaking road up the side of a mountain, they are in the world of Annette's childhood: rural, poor, lacking resources and opportunity, battered by drug addiction. Annette's old friends greet her with differing levels of enthusiasm; she hasn't been in touch in ten years. And, to Charles's astonishment, they call her "Annie Rae."

Rachel Griesinger, Aimée Fortier

Photo:  Al Foote III

To describe what follows--culture clashes, drunken confidences, old wounds reopened, secrets revealed--sounds cliché, but in Kara Ayn Napolitano's exceptional new play, In Search of Elaina, everything is new, real, and earned. The play is well-served by excellent direction, by Joy Donze, and vivid, convincing acting. As Annette/ Annie Rae, Aimée Fortier moves seamlessly from being a sophisticated professional in her early 30s to a confused, yearning teenager and back again. The rest of the cast is also excellent: Greg Carere, Jamie Effros, Alexandra Gellner, Rachel Griesinger, Garrett Richmond, and Lee Tyler. It is a first-class production of a first-class play. 

(For tickets, click here.)

Wendy Caster