Skip to main content
This Random World could seem like a more complicated Love Actually without Christmas: Steven Dietz's 2016 existential dramedy is a collection of loosely related side plots about love and self-discovery. But to the casual nihilist, it's an exercise in accepting our rockier life decisions.
The play centers on the Ward family—aging matriarch Scottie (Kathleen Worley), her adult daughter Beth (Kristin Barrett) and her 29-year-old son Tim (Jacob Beaver)—who never directly interact during the play. The plot is largely expressed through monologue-heavy vignettes, which allow no more than two characters to intersect at a time.
The set is a graceful replica of a Japanese garden, but the globetrotting plots see characters crossing paths all over the world, permitting chance encounters to happen on a miraculous scale.
However, these encounters often become missed connections. When Beth and Gary (John D'Aversa) are trapped on a mountain together in Nepal, they begin flirting. In any other play, this scene might be the start of a burgeoning romance. But here, both characters end up asking each other: "What's the point?" Brimming with dramatic irony, they actually have a tight-knit connection back home they are unaware of.
In This Random World, more plot points are introduced than actualized. Though the play's stream-of-consciousness approach may seem unproductive, the vignettes are compelling enough that they amount to something just as rich as a complete narrative.
Rhonda (Tyharra Cozier) has perhaps the most varied and intimate role. She is a sister, a receptionist, a caretaker and a wanderer; she is also the only secondary character to interact with all three Wards. When given the chance to travel abroad to a spiritual garden in Japan, she ends up huddled over a group of stones, one of which she must choose to set her friend's spirit free.
Cozier handles the selection process with a successful mesh of anxiety and grace: Her character is tempted to believe that no stone will do the trick. Here, we feel as if we, too, are struggling to find meaning in a concentrated mass of identical objects. In the end, Rhonda lets someone else choose for her. JACK RUSHALL.
SEE IT: This Random World plays at Portland Actors Conservatory, 1436 SW Montgomery St., pac.edu. 7:30 pm Thursday-Saturday, 2 pm Sunday, through April 23. No show Sunday, April 16. $18.