Word for Word magic illuminates ‘Annunciation’
Patricia Silver (left) is Griselda and Rosie Hallett is the unnamed narrator in Word for Word’s production of Annunciation by Lauren Groff at Z Below. Photo by Jessica Palopoli
Since 1993 Word for Word has been rewriting the rules of readers theater. The company turns short pieces of fiction into fully produced theatrical experiences without altering the original. After more than 30 years, we’ve come to expect a certain level of genius from Word for Word simply because that is so often what we get from their unique alchemy of theatrical literature/literary theater.
But even when you expect great things, Word for Word can still surprise with its level of artistry and the way some fiction, in their capable hands, seems reborn on the stage. That is the case with Annunciation, a short story by Lauren Groff published in the New Yorker in 2022 (you can read the story here) now on stage at Z Below.
Director Joel Mullnnix, assistant director/dramaturg Delia MacDougall and a whole team of excellent designers and actors have created a captivating, soulful 75-minute play about the demarcation point where childhood gives way to adulthood.
In Groff’s story, an unnamed young woman has just graduated from an East Coast university. Feeling little connection to her family and with no money or prospects, she points her late grandfather’s Buick toward California and doesn’t stop until she lands in a youth hostel in San Francisco’s Chinatown.
Once she has her West Coast bearings, our narrator finds gainful employment doing social work data entry in Redwood City, where she also finds a living arrangement with positive aspects (an adorable cottage under a glorious oak tree) and negative (caring for a 200-pound mastiff and an eccentric German landlady who may or not be a hoarder and pathological liar).
Hallett’s narrator (left) befriends co-worker Anais (Molly Rebekka Benson) at her Redwood City workplace. Photo by Jessica Palopoli
In true Word for Word fashion, a first-person narrative blossoms into a rich, multi-character drama full of fascinating detail and the emotional complexity of a young person evolving from her lonely, dispassionate girlhood into fraught adulthood, where other people and responsibilities are unavoidable.
As our narrator, the exquisite Rosie Hallett is at once her wiser older self looking back at this transitional time and her younger self experiencing mistakes, surprises and relationships that reveal the true nature of her character. Hallett is so relatable and incisive, not to mention entertaining, that we don’t feel how deeply we’ve fallen into her experience until the drama intensifies and it feels like it’s happening to us. As a sort of stand-in for Groff, Hallett is wise and naive, and, in the words of the story, she embodies “an animal and a god wrestling unto death.”
The show rises and falls (and rises and rises) on Hallett’s luminous performance, but the supporting cast is every bit as good. There are defined characters, like Griselda the landlady played by Patricia Silver and Anais, a traumatized single mother played by Molly Rebekka Benson, as well as sparky bit parts played by the ensemble – Brenna Pickman-Thoon as a beleaguered boss and a giant dog, Joanne Winter as the narrator’s overwhelmed mother and Monica Rose Slater as a radiant young Griselda.
The fluidity of the production and the seamless way single sentences in the story can become complete scenes on stage are often astonishing, and the simple but effective set design by Kate Boyd and lighting by Jim Cave help it all stay focused yet constantly in motion.
Annunciation wrestles with life at its most prosaic and its most profound. Groff’s narrator struggles with expiation, forgiveness and contrition, even while reflecting on (and in) the golden light of the past at its most wholehearted. Taking something so internal and making it so beautifully, powerfully theatrical – that’s the power of great writing touched by the magic of Word for Word.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Lauren Groff’s Annunciation continues through July 13 in a Word for Word production at Z Below, 470 Florida St., San Francisco. Running time is 75 minutes (no intermission). Tickets are $45-$70. Call 415-626-0453 or visit www.zspace.org.
SPECIAL AUTHOR EVENT: Author Lauren Groff will be in conversation with Word for Word Co-Artistic Director Joanne Winter on July 9 at Z Space. Click for more info.
