It may not always be fun to be part of a dysfunctional family, but it does make for an interesting night at the theater.
ASU playwriting graduate student Cary DeBerry's thesis project is his new play "Fast Forward Rewind," which looks at the interconnectivity of the family unit, but in a fresh way, using a cyclical and backwards structure.
"It's not as confusing as 'Memento,' but it uses that same rewinding technique, where the end of the story is told at the beginning of the play," DeBerry said.
The reverse structure of "Fast Forward Rewind" also is unique in that only two characters, one male and one female, are onstage at a time. The characters cycle onstage for only two scenes, starting with the daughter and her grandfather. The next scene features the grandfather and grandmother, and so on.
After writing award-winning comedies during his time at ASU, DeBerry has spent the semester developing the play, which he classifies as a drama "with hopefully some comedic parts, but that will depend on the audience," he said.
"I got the idea for the plot initially from talking to my uncle about the movie 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding,' and I got really interested in doing a piece showing the interconnectivity of families -- how the oldest person relates to the youngest person, and how the family as a whole deals with tragedy," he said.
Although the structure is a reincarnation of "Conversations," a play DeBerry wrote two years ago, he said the death of his mother in January inspired several aspects of the play, including the opening scene in which the daughter -- 28-year-old Alicia -- is visited in the hospital by the spirit of her grandfather, who is there to guide her to her death.
"It then goes back through to when she is about 15, and tells how this dysfunctional and estranged family got to be that way," DeBerry said.
"Fast Forward Rewind" is produced by ASU Student Productions, which is a segment of the theater department that is entirely student run.
Theater junior Rebecca Mallen plays the part of Alicia and worked with DeBerry two years ago on "Conversations."
"I love Cary's writing," Mallen said. "He creates characters I can relate to and writes so people can really understand what he is saying."
Besides observing his own family and friends, DeBerry said he borrowed the structure from Arthur Schnitzler's 1900 drama "La Ronde," which was made into the 1998 film "The Blue Room," starring Nicole Kidman.
"Fast Forward Rewind" is playing at 7:30 p.m. tonight in the rehearsal studio of the Nelson Fine Arts Center at 10th Street and Mill Avenue. Admission is free and doors open at 7 p.m.
Reach the reporter at annemarie.moody@asu.edu.
