An Air Balloon across Antarctica

Description
*** [THREE STARS] Darragh Martin's "An Air Balloon Across Antarctica" feels like children’s theater dressed in ill-fitting adult drama’s clothing: awkward, sometimes woefully overacted, mired in its own seriousness and unsure what kind of audience it's playing to. At the start of the action, we find ourselves in, yes, an air balloon floating across Antarctica, along with minor celeb and explorer Caitlin and an obese, Special K-addicted hamster (the pet of Caitlin’s recently deceased son). Also grimly present: an urn of ashes to be spread along the white expanse. What ensues should be moving, grave and poignantly surreal. Yet the tears of contrived "feeling" that welled up in the actors’ eyes made me cringe in embarrassment on multiple occasions. (We get it: They’re sad.) Such obvious displays of emotion wouldn’t be necessary if the script could carry its weight. Jeff Brown, who plays the obese and endearingly delusional hamster, is the best thing in the production, perhaps because he doesn't take himself too seriously; his monologue about wanting to become the first hamster-cum-lemming is refreshing, amusing and genuinely touching. (I won’t even begin to go into the Ralph Lauren-clad ghosts of explorers, who seem to be trying to channel Laurence Olivier in "Hamlet.") To a tweenager ready for greater exposure to stories that tackle serious issues of death and loss, à la "Bridge to Terabithia," this show might be perfect. But adult spectators can skip the voyage.--Kristi Brecht, Online Producer