Pointed 'Vanishing'

DURHAM -- Manbites Dog Theater Company ends its 20th season with an appropriate finale, Naomi Iizuka's "At the Vanishing Point." This lyrical work is perfect material for the company's signature approach to theater.

Commissioned by Kentucky's Actors Theater of Louisville, the 2004 piece came from Iizuka's four years in Louisville's Butchertown neighborhood, named for the local hog-processing plant. The 85-minute one-act, a series of monologues that draw on the playwright's interviews with residents, centers on a character who's based on real-life Kentucky photographer Ralph Eugene Meatyard.

All this may suggest documentary, but the irresistibly named Meatyard took his enigmatic photos in and around Lexington, not Louisville.

The geographic detail matters little for Iizuka's purposes. In her monologues, the unnamed photographer's relatives, friends and co-workers relate their memories, their stories revealing random bits of background that mirror his mistily focused photographs. The result is a contemplative riff on the way memory and perception shape our lives, the evocative images and arresting phrases woven into a quietly delicate work.

The play is flawed. Many of the monologues are too short to fully establish a character and are often too generically depicted. With no plot or progressive action, the piece relies heavily on mood and impression, offering few hooks to draw the viewer in or connect with emotionally. Yet Manbites Dog diminishes these shortcomings with its usual enhancement of the theatrical experience.

It starts with the physical production, Jonathan Blackwell's striking collection of doors, windows and walls dreamily arrayed over the entire staging area, employing all the available space to the back wall of the theatre. Chuck Catotti's shadowy pools of light dramatically suggest mental interiors, intensified by sound designer Adam Sampieri's fleeting echoes of nature and industry. Longtime house photographer Alan Dehmer supplies locally shot images that mimic Meatyard's work, projected on various surfaces.

Director Jeff Storer, the company's co-founder, coaxes nuanced performances from his five adult and three younger actors. Derrick Ivey, in a change from recent highly wrought, intense characterizations, plays the photographer with down-to-earth directness, low-key humor and engaging warmth. Marcia Edmundson contributes her best work in years as three widely different personages: the hard-edged, beer-drinking plant worker; the sweetly genteel elderly widow; and the brashly hilarious, oft-married bar owner.

David Berberian is moving as a slaughter-weary plant worker and charming as a car lot worker with artistic aspirations. Madeleine Lambert's ethereal young blind girl is nicely contrasted with her sassy, determined pottery painter. Michael O'Foghludha amuses as a fussy tour guide, although his approach is rather caricatured, something Storer allows elsewhere at times, giving the overall tone some imbalance.

Claire Catotti, Garrett M. Stein-Seroussi and Jonah Klever skillfully portray young versions of the older characters, while Eliza Bagg adds a nostalgic touch with her melancholy vocals and violin.

Some may find this well-executed and sensitively portrayed production a little wispy and disconnected, but those who accept a wide range of theatrical possibilities will not be disappointed.