Peter Porte, Nicole Lowrance, Kate Mulligan, Michael T. Weiss, and Olivia Thirlby

O.P.C. starts with a bang, with a blast of blaring music and people running down the aisles toting overstuffed trash bags onto the stage. Lights up on the humble abode (read: squat) where "freegan" Romi (Olivia Thirlby) lives outside the box and transmits her webcast focused on ending over-consumption. When her mother Smith (Kate Mulligan), a high-powered district attorney, comes to visit to announce her intention to run for the Senate, she is horrified by her daughter's lifestyle and what impact it might have on her campaign. The power struggle begins, with each woman convinced of the rightness of her cause, but it remains to be seen if their positions are mutually exclusive or if they might be able to collaborate to achieve a win-win scenario.

Enter Dad/Bruce (Michael T. Weiss), who doesn't see Romi as the threat that Smith sees; power-suited sister Kansas (Nicole Lowrance), who is more or less a "Mini-Me" of her mother; and Damien (Peter Porte), who starts out as an anti-consumption activist like Romi, but is drawn like a moth to a flame by the possibilities of aligning himself with Smith. With the exception of Bruce, who seems content to hover in the background as the candidate's spouse, each of the characters has an agenda, as much as they may deny it. It is the conflict between them that creates firestorms and moves the story along as they jockey for position. Being a savvy politician, Smith is masterful in the way that she co-opts Romi's talents, manipulates her into joining her team, and tries to make her think she's staying true to herself even when she bursts into the limelight for her clothing line called Fruitskin.

Ensler is on the mark illustrating the way our celebrity-worship culture gobbles up the star du jour, having Romi appear on an Oprah-like talk show (Liz Mikel channels Winfrey) to discuss the new fashion, even as she tries to promote her higher ideals. Everyone else is happy, but Romi starts to go under when she realizes exactly what she has done and how her mother has cannily orchestrated it. She delivers a funny, albeit heavy-handed, rant en route to a breakdown in a very public forum at the end of act one, and the second act begins with her parents learning that she has been diagnosed with O.P.C.

Little is known about her condition or its treatment, obviously invented for the play; I think Ensler dropped the ball on that score because the consequence is that too much time is expended on a very amorphous subject and distracts from the crux of the argument. The story shoots off in multiple directions and the resulting state of confusion underscores the disarray of the set as metaphor. There are powerful moments when the family dynamics erupt, when Smith shows her true colors on a talk show, and particularly in the aftermath of the election. However, there is so much being cast upon the waters, that O.P.C. struggles not to sink under its own weight. There are terrific performances across the board, but the characters should not be repeating the same arguments in act two that they have in the first scenes of the play, especially if reconciliation is the projected outcome.

Director Pesha Rudnick deserves a medal for keeping it together with the myriad challenges of the fast-paced play onstage and the backstage drama involving cast replacements prior to the run. The combined talents of Brett J. Banakis (scenic design), Esosa (costume design), Bradley King (lighting design), Jane Shaw (sound design) and Sean Sagady (projection design) make the world of the play vividly come alive. As it stands, O.P.C. is an ambitious, promising production, but could benefit from some behavior modification.

O.P.C., performances through January 4, 2015, at American Repertory Theater, Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle Street, Cambridge, MA; Box Office 617-547-8300 or www.amrep.org.

Written by Eve Ensler, Directed by Pesha Rudnick; Scenic Design, Brett J. Banakis; Costume Design, Esosa; Lighting Design, Bradley King; Sound Design, Jane Shaw; Projection Design, Sean Sagady; Movement, Jill Johnson; Production Stage Manager, Taylor Adamik

Cast (in order of appearance): Olivia Thirlby, Kate Mulligan, Michael T. Weiss, Nancy Linehan Charles, Liz Mikel, Babak Tafti, Nicole Lowrance, Peter Porte

Photo: Evgenia Eliseeva