Perseverance Theatre’s production of “Annapurna” opens this Friday.
Anchorage-based actor Kevin T. Bennett says, “It’s like a symphony of missed opportunities for human beings.” Despite the gloomy description, he is quick to point out the play is also quite funny.
Bennett is one of two actors in the production and plays a recovering alcoholic who lives in a low-rent trailer park in Colorado.
“There’s this fella, by the name of Ulysses, who has had a remarkably checkered past. His health is failing and it looks grim for him. In through the door walks his estranged wife of 20 years,” says Bennett.
Enter Fairbanks-based Rebecca George who plays Emma. Readers may recognize her from her part as Dean Wreen in last spring’s Perseverance production of “Seven Homeless Mammoths Wander New England.”
“Over the course of the play we have an opportunity to explore the core of our humanity, and humor, the remnants of love, and rationale and substance abuse. In any case, the story unfolds in these two characters over the course of an hour and 40 minutes until we reach the conclusion—it’s a bit shocking,” Bennett says. He also played Ulysses in Perseverance’s productions of “Annapurna” in Anchorage.
“It’s very lyrical. There are sentiments shared by these two characters that are just so truthful that it’s impossible not to relate to,” says Bennett.
In researching the part, Bennett spoke with playwright Sharr White.
“He has a way with words. We discussed how he wrote the play, and how the words are almost musical. They’re orchestrated in such a way that they’re like movements, individual movements, of a fine piece of classical music,” says Bennett.
While “Annapurna” officially opens Friday at Perseverance Theatre, you can catch pay-as-you-can previews Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
