In Vivo

Or: Ordinary folks, extraordinary circumstances.

In Eric Coble’s new play, produced by the 5x5 reading series of Boise Contemporary Theater, a small colorado town is visited by the Mysteries. An unlikely trio (are there ever likely trios?), Bank manager Phyllis Anderson (Jodeen Revere), butcher Earl Hoff (Arthur Glen Hughes), and high school senior Meaghan (Tiara Thompson), are each endowed with a separate, cumbersome, gift, pointing them as harbingers of toward some marvelous or cataclysmic event yet to come. The odd, trinity-of-monologues approach Coble takes may thrive better in a staged reading then in a full production, but the expanding spheres of influence, as the occasionally brush up and then separate from each other, cogs finding teeth in little repeated phrases and interlocked lines, is a poetic delight to the ear.

The principal pleasure of In Vivo though resides not just in its language or its (dare I say it?), Christian-Noir bubbles and bursts, but in introducing us to three well witted and deep hearted characters, each rendered superbly by their actors. Thompson frolics in the, very difficult to capture jump-snap world of teen angst (difficult enough by itself, without the Angelic visitations) plumbing Meaghan’s doubts and insecurities and soaring up as an implacable and frightening defender. With her impeccable timing, incredulity and discomfiture, Revere fits Phyllis like a hand a glove, fully inhabiting her character and bringing her alive even sequestered behind the long table, that gave this reading a down-home feeling. And Hughes takes, as though by second nature, right to the heart of Earl’s gentleness and good humor, warming the character and imparting something of his goodness on to us, if only just a moment. A rare and much appreciated gift.

In Vivo is a strange but delightful creature; high-toned in it’s delivery and honing a considerable edge on its story, it nonetheless gives off a delightful time, as it shows three folks living their lives as best as they can in extraordinary circumstances. It harvests laugh after laugh, keeps us clipping along steadily after the carrot of the mystery, and leaves us feeling warm and in no small sense, blessed to have found such peace, at least for awhile.