PORT TOWNSEND — We’re tucked inside a trailer up the Colorado Rockies, off the grid. Our companions, together all of a sudden after 20 years: Ulysses the cowboy poet and his former wife Emma, a blast from the past who’s driven all the way here from Providence, R.I.
Away we go for “Annapurna,” the comedy opening Thursday for a three-week run at the Key City Public Theatre.
It’s a two-hander, just one pair of characters, costarring Denise Winter, who’s here almost as unexpectedly as Emma is.
Winter, artistic director of Key City Public Theatre, rarely takes main-stage roles; last time she did was in “Cinderella” four years ago.
But Emma jumped off the page into her heart. Soon she was having two conversations in her head: This is a great play for Key City and wow, here is a woman I could portray.
Others at the theater company urged Winter on. For her leading man Ulysses, they brought in David Natale, seen in Key City’s Shakespeare productions in recent years, and director Allen Fitzpatrick, a veteran of Seattle, Philadelphia and New York City theater.
Something earth-shaking happened between Emma and Ulysses two decades ago. The thing is, he can’t remember it. She cannot forget.
Face to face in the snug space, they are about to set out on a strange trip through anger, mortality and love.
“Annapurna” proves “very realistic about couples and the complexity of relationships, the way they can pick up where they left off,” Fitzpatrick said.
Ulysses, a Sam Shepard-like writer who chose the West, and Emma, an Easterner, “are very different types,” he said, “yet you can see why they’re drawn to each other. Denise and David,” he added, “are incredibly well-suited for their roles.”
“I’m not Ulysses, thank goodness,” said Natale, though he does identify with this man’s free-spirited, independent view of the world.
Ulysses and Emma, who are in their 50s, bring to the trailer table plenty of sharp repartee, lots of vexation — and the potential for reconciliation.
Humor, too: This is no Neil Simon comedy, but it’s darkly funny from the explosive moment the lights come up, said Winter.
The tiny space has room for fun — and for some meal preparation, some cleaning, flirting and forgiveness.
We also hear some poetry by Ulysses, who is a charming, witty person, Natale said. “Annapurna’s” title refers to not only the forbidding Himalayan peak but also to the epic poem Ulysses is composing.
Asked what he hopes theater-goers will take home with them after “Annapurna,” Natale said two camps just might form: those who see Ulysses’ side and those who relate more to Emma.
Either way, the play offers an intimate look inside a relationship, and Fitzpatrick, Winter and Natale are relishing it all.
“There are heated debates,” said Winter, “and there are moments when we have to laugh at each other.”
The details …
“Annapurna,” written by Share White, opens Thursday at the Key City Playhouse.
Curtain time is 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and 2:30 p.m. Sundays through Oct. 20 at the playhouse at 419 Washington St.
Tickets are $24 on Thursday and Sundays and $29 Fridays and Saturdays, while pay-what-you-wish performances are set for Oct. 9 and Oct. 11.
For information, call 360-385-5278 and visit keycitypublic theatre.org.
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Diane Urbani de la Paz, a former features editor for the Peninsula Daily News, is a freelance writer living in Port Townsend.
