Review: THE STORYTELLER at Artists Repertory Theatre

Artists Rep is ending its short season on the highest of high notes with the world premiere of THE STORYTELLER, by local playwright Sara Jean Accuardi. This gorgeous play, which won the 2023 Oregon Book Award for drama, delves into the profound ways stories shape our understanding of the world – healing us, guiding us, and sometimes imprisoning us.

The play was inspired by Shakespeare’s The Tempest. It unfolds through the narrative voice of The Lady (Victoria Alvarez-Chacon), whose commanding presence guides us through the tale of a modern-day Prospero. At the center is Paps (Isaac Lamb), a man who has chosen to raise his daughter Randi (Sami Yacob-Andrus) beyond society's reach – off the grid yet tantalizingly close to suburban normalcy. Paps is equal measures fierce protectiveness and fragile vulnerability, and he tells Randi stories both to enchant her and to keep perceived dangers at bay. As Randi grows up, she becomes more and more interested in a life she has never known – the kind portrayed in teen magazines. 

Over everything looms the one unspoken story that Paps cannot bring himself to tell – of Randi’s origin and her mother. This missing piece forms the emotional core of the play, not just what the story is, but whose story it is – the one who experienced it, the one shaped by its absence, or perhaps the storyteller who frames it for others?

This play skates right on the edge of fantasy and reality, and the production, directed by Luan Schooler, is full of twists and turns, surprises and delights. But also grief, isolation, longing. It’s a visceral experience of the truest love and the most painful loss that reflects how we shape stories, how they shape us, and what happens when they change.

This world premiere is theater at its finest – beautifully written, emotionally resonant, and executed with artistry. Don’t miss your chance to see it.

THE STORYTELLER runs through May 18. Details and tickets here.

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