Third Space Theater made an impressive debut at least year's Minnesota Fringe Festival with the original play
Breach, a gripping tale at sea that was part psychological thriller and part family drama. It makes sense, then, that for their post-Fringe debut they chose playwright and screenwriter Will Arbery's surreal family drama
Plano. This regional premiere
plays at Mixed Blood Theatre through January 18, and it's an engrossing, fast-paced, fantastical, funny, devastating play. Co-directors Alex Church and Em Adam Rosenberg have assembled a fantastic cast, including several of the
Breach crew, and did a great job with this tricky script. The play deals with themes of domestic violence, so Third Space has partnered with the local organization
Tubman, that offers support to people experiencing this and other traumas. They're donating 10% of ticket sales to the organization, and have information in the lobby. The night I attended, after a horrifying week of ICE terrorizing our community, they also had helpful packets of info about dealing with ICE (with whistles). This new theater company is already proving to be one that not only does great, interesting, entertaining work, but also engages with the community and world around them. Their name, which derives from the theory of a third space, in addition to home and work, for people to gather in community, seems entirely appropriate.
 |
sisters Isabel (Mariabella Sorini), Anne
(Stephanie Kayle), and Genevieve
(Hannah Leatherbarrow, photo by Lydia Frank) |
Plano is a brilliantly written 90 minutes or so, with fast-paced dialogue barreling us through years, and then back again. A common refrain has a character referring to something happening later, and then declaring, "it's later!," as we move right into that event and past it. It's written in a surreal, almost hyperreal style, with some fantastical or magical realism thrown in, like dance breaks or dream ballets. The story revolves around three sisters living in a small town in Texas - not Plano, but near Plano, which is referenced (hated or loved) as an idea of... something. The sisters are all having issues with their men. Anne (Stephanie Kahle) got pregnant and married quickly to a man named Juan whom she calls John (Samuel Osborne-Huerta), who may be gay, and may have married her for a Green Card. Genevieve (Hannah Leatherbarrow) is married to and has children with Steve (Ben Qualley), who may be abusing her, and may split into two bodies. Isabel (Mariabella Sorini) moves to Chicago to work with the nuns helping the less fortunate, but is still connected to her Texas sisters. She's being haunted by a faceless ghost (Michael Hundevad), who may be God, or death. (It's a little difficult to tell what's "real" in this play, or what that even means, or matters.) The sisters support each other in any way they can, maybe even murder, and we understand them a little better when their mother Mary (Jennifer D'Lynn) blows in like a hurricane for one brief but memorable scene.
This is a play that's hard to wrap your head around, but in the end it's clear that it's very much about women and the things we have to deal with in this world. A memorable and representative line is when one of the men tells his parter, "you're the ground I walk upon to get where I'm going." Wow. How does a man write so eloquently about what it is to be a woman?
Growing up with seven sisters probably doesn't hurt, in Texas, and I'm guessing also Catholic judging by the religious themes in this play and his Pulitzer Prize finalist play
Heroes of the Fourth Turning (which I now want to see).
 |
the cowboy dream ballet (Samuel Osborne-Huerta,
Michael Hundevad, and Ben Qualley, photo by Lydia Frank) |
This is not an easy play to stage, with its intricate and sometimes repetitive dialogue, time loops, and fantasy sequences, but this team proves to be up to the task. The direction by Alex and Em make it as clear as it can be, while still leaving room for ambiguity, and strikes a perfectly balanced tone between humor, grounded family drama, absurdity, and fantasy. And the dream sequences somehow work within the context of the story, the dances (choreographed by Em) showing us another dimension of the characters. Everyone in the cast is great, ably handling the dialogue, tone, and themes. They don't attempt Texas accents, which would probably just distract from everything else going on in this play.
Set designer Olivia von Edeskuty has built a full front porch on the Mixed Blood stage, including the latticed space under it (necessary for the plot). It looks substantial, weathered, and welcoming, with the indoors of the house visible behind the large open window. The lighting design punctuates some key moments, and the sound design includes well-chosen songs for the dance sequences. The costumes don't scream Texas, but include plenty of denim and cowboy boots. (Lighting design by Jackson Funke, sound design by Sam Faye King, costume design uncredited).
Plano was my first local play of 2026, and the year is off to a great start, on the theater front if not in real life. But this is a play, and a company, that's not disconnected from the very real issues of the outside world.
Check it out at Mixed Blood in the Minneapolis' Cedar-Riverside neighborhood through January 18 only, with pre- and post- show events including talkbacks, a community, and pre-show well-chosen "Texas Tunes" (including the very appropriate "Cowboys Are Frequently, Secretly Fond of Each Other," covered by Willie Nelson), featuring the gorgeous vocals and guitar playing of Em Adam Rosenberg.
