In my experience, plays come in all shapes and sizes. The first play I ever saw was a high school production of South Pacific in 1986. The first professional show I ever saw was the First National Company tour of Les Miserables in 1989, and the first show I saw on Broadway was Aaron Sorkin’s A Few Good Men in 1990. You’re not likely to mistake any of these shows for any of the others, but they all definitely have some similarities; they each have sets made of physical materials, casts comprised of identifiably human beings portraying other human beings, and each presents a thesis or idea through narrative storytelling that may identify with or not, but at the end of the show, I do understand what’s just happened. South Pacific is about racism, Les Miserables is about redemption, and A Few Good Men about honor. And I had quite the thirty-eight year streak going on this score…but then I saw Detroit Rep’s Michigan premiere of the new play by Richard Strand, Annabella In July. Well, it was a great run.

It’s important to note that I don’t say this to warn you away from this show. I’d see this show again right now, and maybe I should…cause it is A TRIP. I write this forty eight hours after seeing it, and I haven’t stopped thinking about it. Mostly because I’m not entirely sure what just happened. I got to the end of Act I very intrigued about what I was seeing, and had a conversation in the lobby with Director Leah Smith, and said “I’m really fascinated to see how this is going to resolve”, as Act I presents a seemingly inescapable puzzle-box…and then Act II got weirder. So, I’ll do the best I can to explain.

Annabella In July is on its surface, set up like a standard character drama. On a cross-country road trip meant to rejuvenate a marriage gone predictable and stale, a professional tile-setter and recreational nature photographer named Brian from Nebraska and his pleasant, mousy, unassuming librarian wife Vanessa have stumbled into a restaurant in a California ski town in the middle of summer, so as you can imagine…business is light. Both Brian and Vanessa seem a little confused about precisely what wrong turn they took to get here and I instantly realized that precise setup is common to about 25% of Twilight Zone episodes, and that makes it very much my jam.

We quickly meet the other four characters in the drama: Camelia, the restaurant’s manager/chef/hostess, Piper, Camelia’s teenage employee/assistant, Alexander, a middle aged Frenchman with no visible means of support who appears to maybe live year round at a ski resort, and The Door, which is the front door to the restaurant. Now, I can already hear the protestations “Nope, sorry…doors are part of the set. They are not characters in a story.” To which I would respectfully reply “Wrong. This one is.” And that’s all I’ll say about it, except to give a tip of the cap to Scenic Designer Harry Wetzel for his work on The Door. I don’t know if the magic is accomplished with filament line, electric motors, or actual sorcery…but this is fine, fine work, sir.

Vanessa is immediately mistaken (?) by everyone at the restaurant for Annabella, a different woman, who is clearly more adventurous, vivacious, and carefree than Vanessa could ever be. She and Brian are confused, mystified, and angered by their refusal to accept that she is not and could not be this other woman. The calendar, the map, and the laws space-time continuum do not allow for Vanessa to be Annabella…and yet…the lines of reality start to blur by the end of Act I, and as Act II nears its conclusion, those lines become no more important than those on an Etch-A-Sketch turned and shaken.

I think what Strand is trying to write about the concept of identity, and the sometimes vast gulf between how we see ourselves and how others see us. Vanessa is a children’s librarian, with her hair in a bun, wearing a grey dress and sensible flats, but everyone around her insists that she is this other person, who brings excitement, fun, and a sense of danger and excitement to their lives, and neither she nor her husband can make any sense of it. This is a hard story to spoil because (spoiler) there is no clean resolution. It becomes apparent that it IS, in fact, akin to a Twilight Zone episode, with a specific resemblance to the 1961 teleplay “Five Characters In Search Of An Exit.”

Brian is embodied here by Antoine McKay, fresh off his run in this season’s earlier production of Joe Turner’s Come And Gone, and does similarly fine work here. The role of Brian is less showy than his previous role in Joe Turner, mostly because Brian is the audience surrogate…a completely normal, fundamentally decent man for whom everything was going fine until the moment it all went completely sideways. Vanessa (and all her facets) is played by local stalwart Annabelle Young, who has been seen at most theaters in Southeast Michigan over the last decade. And, yes…the fact that Vanessa (who may or may not be mistaken for Annabella) is played by someone named Annabelle was the first thing that made me wonder for just a moment if this entire experience was an elaborate, mind-bending prank on just me. X’ydee Alexander plays the role of Piper, and while Piper might be slightly underwritten and not have a ton of depth, Alexander makes the most of the every opportunity, and is delightful and funny in the the Tootie Ramsey-ness of her character (For any reader who doesn’t get that reference, you really missed out). Rosie DeSantis as Camelia is constantly smiling, friendly face whose own connection to Annabella comes as a bit of a surprise, but is totally believable, and Samer Ajluni as Alexander is every bit the broad, cartoonish character of the randy Frenchman, but Ajluni proves himself to have more than one stock character in his repertoire, and seems to have a great deal of fun being here.

About my only criticism of the material is that, at times, the constant repetition of “I’m not who you think I am – YES YOU ARE!” can get a little redundant, but while Annabella In July could be a little shorter, it’s not too long, and I wouldn’t want to spend less time with the characters.

Oh…also, the earth maybe starts spinning backward.

So, if you find any of this intriguing, please visit our friends at the Detroit Repertory Theatre, where you can have a pre-show meal, a drink at the bar, and spend the drive home pondering that eternal question: “what the hell just happened here?” And if you figure it out, reach out to me. I’m easy to find.

(Annabella In July is playing at Detroit Repertory Theatre at 13103 Woodrow Wilson St in Detroit, now through May 5th. Tickets are available at www.detroitreptheatre.com, or by calling the box office at 313-868-1347. Questions? Write to ‘info@detroitreptheatre.com’)