"Stranger" Expects to Be No Stranger to Success

“I don’t really like giving too much away, and that’s why all the blurbs are short and sweet,” director Garrett C. Allen ’16 says of “Stranger,” which opens in the Loeb Ex this Friday. “I think the audience should be very open when they come in.” At a rehearsal last week, Allen enthusiastically observed lead characters Linda (Elizabeth K. Leimkuhler ’15) and Hush (Dylan J. Peterson ’17) as they interacted in a particularly emotional scene. “That’s the action and energy we need,” he said. Because “Stranger” takes place inside the limited world of an airplane, this energy—according to Allen—is what will keep the play moving and the audience captivated.

The play’s synopsis is simple: Two strangers, who meet by chance on a flight across the United States, expose pieces of their past through their conversation. Hush has just been released from prison, where he became extremely religious. While flying across the country to start a new life, he meets a woman who also has a complicated past. The play examines the relationship that develops between the two over the course of a single conversation. “The play really deals with human interaction and a lot of issues of power and coping with things that have happened in our past and how we can’t really escape that,” Allen says.

Leimkuhler says that this common theme is what draws the audience into the performance. “It’s interesting to put something on a stage that the audience can perceive as relatable,” Leimkuhler says, “[even with] how wild some of the events are.”

“Stranger” runs from Feb. 27 until March 7. The four-person cast also includes Juliana N. Sass ’17 and Cole V. Edick ’17 in various supporting roles. Producers include Scout K. O'Beirne '15 and Emily E. Bergquist ’18.

Allen believes that “Stranger” will be well received by audiences. It’s “really exciting, really intense, and really psychological… Just be ready,” Allen says.

—Staff writer Annie E. Schugart can be reached at annie.schugart@thecrimson.com.