Run Boy Run Productions presents Allen Clark's 'Underground Episodes'

Secrets revealed

A cast of 19 rides the rails — 14 chairs suggest a subway car — occasionally interacting, but more often sharing their secrets with us. Edger Lee Faucett, Vincent Brown, and Kevin Jones play wise men who try to guide feisty teenagers, played by Qudsiyya Ross, Netera Brickle, and Raquel Colon. The play then breaks into powerful glimpses of inner lives: Quashawn White as a bullied kid who lashes out at his tormentors, Janna Ranndell as a lonely student who confesses that her father "will always be a ghost," Shannon Bertoni as a bruised woman fleeing an abusive husband, and Alicia Diane as a desperate addict.

A married couple, played by Andrew Chupa and Desirae Bush, speak separately, each working out what they'll say to the other. Their sad refrain, "I have a secret I've been dying to get out," hints that their inevitable confrontation will end badly.

SEPTA poetry

Allen's writing captures grim realities, often through poetic alliteration ("Texts and truths turned into times of torment"), hip-hop tempos, and occasional choral refrains (including "Run, boy, run"). These come from the riders — who otherwise, of course, bury their faces in their phones. Well-chosen music, often chaotic jazz, underscores confessions well, and Clark uses the Skinner Studio's limited lighting to create dramatic effects.

The play’s themes include poverty, racism, gay rights, homelessness, drugs, bullying, war, neglect of veterans, teenage rebellion, and more.

Clark still has work to do to continue shaping the 90-minute anthology, which starts strong but peters out by the end. Underground Episodes needs to return to the full cast for a conclusion that ties the stories together and reminds us of the drama seething within an average subway car's collection of strangers. No small scene can end this surprisingly large yet intimate hodgepodge as powerfully as the play's early glimpse of people herded together in a tiny space, connected for a fragile moment.