Ron Menzel and Sha Cage

John Ploughman is the central character. Ten years ago, John left his home in Farmington, along with all the other men, to fight in the war, a war that has gone on so long, no one can ever remember what the fight is about. The play opens with John returning to Farmingtown in search of Flora Crisp, the pure and open-hearted girl whose letter professing her love for him sustained him through the war. But things are not so simple. Flora lost her parents in a fire that destroyed their home, and now lives with her cynical grandmother. Before his arrival, John mistakenly was listed as a war casualty, sending Flora into a tailspin of despair, and making it very difficult for John to get any information about her whereabouts, seeing as he no longer has legal status.

With the men gone to war, all the work in Farmington has been done by women, and women have held all leadership posts, with quite satisfactory results. While they look forward to the return of men to keep them company, the women don't care to relinquish their authority and prowess. In his search for Flora, John meets Sheila, who remembers John from high school, when he was a self-absorbed player and she was a much heftier wallflower. Sheila makes up her mind that she will entice John fall in love with her.

In the zany course of events, John encounters a kindly barkeep, a by-the-book postal worker, an unyielding government agent, a sadistic dentist, a gruff landlady and her awkward daughter, workers at the tractor factory where he worked before the war, a fortune teller, a private detective, and a pair of prostitutes. He also learns that he has a deeper connection to Farmingtown than he ever had realized. Though they have several close calls, John and Flora miss connecting with one another until ... well, suffice to say, Obolensky has whipped up an ending that blends pathos, irony, humor, and hope. And that's not even mentioning the clog dancing!

The plot is a delightful tour de force of the imagination, packed with whimsy, satiric riffs, comic gems, and genuine feeling. Having Forget Me Not When Far Away produced by Ten Thousand Things Theater (where Obolensky currently is playwright in residence) certainly enhances the sense that invention and wonder are the raw materials of play-making. It is hard to know, given Ten Thousand Things' unique approach, where the playwriting ends and director Michelle Hensley's work begins. My guess is that Forget Me Not When Far Away is a truly collaborative venture, so that crediting individual contributions may be less important than praising the wonderful outcome.

Ron Menzel plays John Ploughman beautifully, his lanky body showing the wear and tear of the war years, but his eyes lit up with the prospect of true love restoring his belief in the world, and in himself. He displays shades of feeling—despair, frustration, weariness, hope, embarrassment, elation—through his face, his posture, and his voice, exhibiting the full gamut of a man's experience in the world.

All of the other actors play multiple characters, but with simple changes of wigs, a sweater or scarf added or subtracted, and changes in voice and affect, we always can tell who is who. Sun Mee Chomet portrays Flora, who ranges in emotion from sad to despondent ... she has lost the ability to experience her life as anything but her feelings. Chomet fully creates a lost-in–the-stars character, but switches on a dime to portray the wise and warmhearted barkeep, and Connie, the landlady scraping by to protect herself and her daughter. The wondrously expressive Shá Cage portrays Sheila, at first voracious in her appetite to seduce John, but in time, revealing the person within as someone who can connect free of artifice. Cage also plays the part of Portia, Connie's attention-starved daughter, and a Fortune Teller of dubious credibility.

Karen Wiese-Thompson pulls off a wise-cracking Detective Early, an over-the-top German-accented dentist, Flora's grandmother Betty, one of Sheila's pals, and Xena, a hooker with a heart of dollar signs. Elise Langer and Annie Enneking complete the cast, both investing their various roles with spirited humor. One of Enneking's roles is as a chanteuse at the bar, performing songs that reflect uncomfortably (at least, for John Ploughman) on the action at hand. Langer makes the most of the role of Atlas, a young boy who has grown up in a society with no men.

As is its standard fare, Ten Thousand Things stages this play in a square playing area with just one or two rows of audience members on each side, and all the house lights on throughout. There are no sets to speak of. Stanchions at each of the four entrances to the playing area fold down to create a bar, a service counter, and other effects. The women's costumes appear as richly dyed shifts, with changes of accessories and wigs for the different characters they play. John Ploughman's ragged drab garb is a blank canvas on which he depicts his changing fortunes and feelings. Peter Vitale's sound effects and snippets of music contribute nicely to the flow of the production from scene to scene.

Forget Me Not When Far Away is a wonderful surprise of a play. It delights and uplifts, tickles the mind with the ingenuity of its stagecraft, tugs at the heart for the insights into feelings of desire, loss, and love, and offers ample opportunities for laughter as it pokes fun at the rules society plays by. And don't forget the clog dance: joyful, affirming, and gloriously silly. In a busy spring theater season, this one should be high on the list.

Forget Me Not When Far Away plays through May 17, 2015, at Minnesota Opera Center, 620 N. 1st Street, Minneapolis, and May 22 —31 at The Open Book, 1011 Washington Avenue South, Minneapolis. Tickets: $30.00, Pay what you can, $5.00 and up, for those under 30. For tickets call 612-203-9502 or visit www.tenthousandthings.org.

Writer: Kira Obolensky; Director: Michelle Hensley; Songs: Annie Enneking; Sound: Peter Vitale; Costumes: Sonya Berlovitz; Sets: Stephen Irve Dell; Choreographer: Jim Lichtsheidl; Production Manager: Nancy Waldoch; Assistant Director: Shanté Zenith; Costume Assistant: Shannon Gauer; Production Intern: Sofia Galloway

Cast: Shá Cage (Sheila, Portia, Fortune Teller), Sun Mee Chomet (Flora Crisp, Barkeep, Connie), Annie Enneking (Missy, Chanteuse, Mabel, Francine, Susan, Thea), Elise Langer (Town Crier, Louise, Emily, Tanya, Atlas), Ron Menzel (John Ploughman), Karen Wiese-Thompson (Grandmother Crisp, Betty, Detective Early, Dentist, Xena).

Photo: Paula Keller

- Arthur Dorman

Also see the season schedule for the Minneapolis - St. Paul region