In Tori King’s fever dream of a play “Devil in a Box,” audience members don’t just watch the story of a man abusing drugs to cope with lifelong trauma and grief, they take the trip right along with him.
The visceral hourlong drama made its world premiere Friday at OnStage Playhouse in Chula Vista. It’s the sixth locally written play OnStage artistic director James P. Darvas has produced through his Page to Stage development program. Darvas is also the stage director for “Devil in a Box” and it’s a deeply personal project for him — he’s celebrating 16 years of sobriety.
“Devil in a Box” begins when a young man named Jay calls an overdose prevention hot line to speak to a volunteer counselor while he shoots up drugs. He tells the woman he’s been been sober for 17 days, three hours and 22 minutes but couldn’t handle sobriety so he escaped from rehab to score some dope. As he drifts into semi-consciousness, he enters a sureallistic haze where time and reality become topsy-turvy for him and for the audience.
The play’s setting, meticulously designed by Duane McGregor, is a church preschool that Jay and his younger sister, Bren, attended in their youth. Carefree scenes of them playing together as small children are interspersed with those of the teenage Jay and his best friend, Charlie, plotting petty crimes to support their habits.
Drug-fueled delusions cause the tempo of monologues to rocket into hyper speed and some scenes repeat with the details morphing, sometimes disturbingly, each time. Is Jay alive or has he overdosed? Are Bren and Charlie real or only imaginary? Gradually, Jay’s story is revealed and it’s a familiar one — parents with their own addictions and criminal histories, tragic deaths, poverty, loneliness and loss of hope.
Leading the cast as Jay is Brey Laqou, an OnStage newcomer who has an intense and fiery energy that’s a good fit for his agitated character. Jenna Pekny has a quiet sincerity as Jay’s adoring sister Bren, and Jaden Guerrero is carefree and ebullient as the fearless Charlie.
Kimberly Weinberg has a gentle, world-weary presence as the maternal Val, the hot line volunteer and diner waitress who — it turns out — has known Jay for most of his life. Val has encouraged Jay toward sobriety but she knows only he can make that choice when he’s ready.
As a new play, “Devil in a Box” has a clever concept and Darvas’ direction is immersive and thoughtful. But the script needs work.
The final scene feels like an A.A. one-step-at-a-time lecture and it’s followed by a feel-good video of before-and-after pictures of formerly addicted celebrities who are now sober (the final pictures are of Darvas himself). It’s an awkward end for a what was, until that scene, a promising play.
“Devil in a Box” is unsettling, dark and sometimes confusing as it puts the audience in the mind of an addict to build understanding and empathy.
‘Devil in a Box’
When: 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays; 5 p.m. Sundays. Through June 9
Where: OnStage Playhouse, 291 Third Ave., Chula Vista
Tickets: $20-$25
Online: onstageplayhouse.org