Theater Online - New York Theater Reviews

"Glass Highways," being presented by Frontier Stages Productions on the upper Eastside at The Jan Hus Playhouse, takes place in present day New Mexico on and near Interstate 25 North (to Santa Fe) on a stormy winter night. As the title suggests, the journey of the characters may be as hazardous as driving on an ice-glazed thoroughfare. At some points in the play, that does prove true, but much of the action and dialogue seems to just slip and slide in various directions without a definitive thematic road map.

Playwright David Marrero takes on a great deal in attempting to create what press material calls a "near apocryphal quest" that "pits culture against culture, belief against belief, man against man, through a worsening storm that shows no abatement." Indeed there are struggles with forces of nature, an unrelenting blizzard, complexities in a love story, differing opinions in an extremely dysfunctional family, sacred Zuni Indian beliefs, in addition to allusions to Viet Nam, a symbolic rabbit and a metaphorical Wal-Mart.

An industrious cast of eight, under the fast-paced direction of Matt Black, keeps things moving, but for the most part stock-type characters are not liberated from their stereotypes. The exceptions are the pregnant and single Julia Firston (Erin Fisher) and the more mall-oriented than Zuni-reared Jimmy Freewater (James Manzello). As young people smitten with each other, they create engaging and sometimes humorous interludes amongst a sundry of madcap and chaotic episodes.

Set designers Sierra Pasquale and Martin Gubernat utilize an increasingly popular "tech-set" motif (use of multiple video monitors) to create a sense of location, mood and mystery in addition to an interesting device to convey the demise of the symbolic mega store.

The play ends with Wayne Freewater (Rob Forgett playing a Native American spiritually connected to the culture of his ancestors) speaking words in Zuni (I presume). Not knowing the language and not being provided with a translation, their meaning remains a mystery to me-as does much of the playwright's intentions.