Chilkat Valley News - Serving Haines and Klukwan, Alaska since 1966

Anyone who’s worked a 9-to-5 job and struggled with the tedium of mindless labor and bizarre coworkers will identify with “Enlightenment on E Floor North,” an original production coming to the Chilkat Center lobby 7:30 p.m. Friday.

Written, directed and performed by the Strange Attractor Theatre Company, the show revolves around the working lives of four security guards stationed on the same floor of a museum gallery and explores the feeling of ennui that often pervade monotonous employment.

Performer Roblin Gray Davis said the show, which hit Sitka, Juneau and Tenakee Springs in past weeks, has been well-received. “People have responded both to that aspect of looking at how ridiculous our lives can be as well as enjoying how as human beings we respond to that boredom or tedium. That can be very funny, how we deal with that,” Davis said.

The show is presented by the Haines Arts Council and is sponsored in part by the Rasmuson Foundation and a Harper Arts Touring grant.

The Strange Attractor Theatre Company consists of Davis, Jed Hancock-Brainerd, Aram Aghazarian and Rebecca Noon. The group met at the London International School of Performing Arts, and although they are dispersed across the country, convene now and then to stage a show.

  Hancock-Brainerd, who conceived the show, will not be performing. Kamili Feelings will instead join the crew in the Chilkat Center lobby. 

Davis said the group asked that the show be performed in the lobby instead of the stage. The show has been performed in gyms, the backs of auditoriums, and hall corners, as the group likes to “find non-theatrical spaces to create a theatrical experience,” Davis said.

  Arts council president Tom Heywood said only 90 tickets will be sold for the event, which could be problematic as the group had to schedule a second performance in Juneau after the first one, held at the Juneau Arts and Humanities Council, sold out.

  Heywood advised the show may not be good for very young children. “There’s nothing inappropriate for younger kids, but they wouldn’t get it. They say middle school and up,” he said.

The group also will be holding a workshop for the Summer Youth Theater Conservatory Friday morning, featuring theatrical games intended to build confidence in front of audiences and develop skills for performing on-stage.

  Though young children might not “get” the themes of “Enlightenment on E Street North,” everyone else will likely find something that resonates, Davis said. “There is a lot of humor; there’s a lot of laughter. But also we touch on what all of us experience at some point in our lives: the quirky personalities of people we wouldn’t necessarily choose to spend eight hours a day with.”

Tickets are $15 and are available at the Babbling Book and at the door.