Sometimes it’s hard to write about the great ones. Third Space Theater’s production of Will Arbery’s play “Plano” is so much fun I was actually giddy watching it. “Plano” made me excited about the potential of theater to tackle big subjects with humor at high velocity. The audience was laughing, a lot, and then got on their feet to applaud when it was over. “Plano” is one of those plays that you’ll kick yourself for missing because everyone who sees it raves about it. So don’t be left out, go catch the production while you’ve still got the chance.
“We’ll talk about it later. It’s later. Merry Christmas!”
What is “Plano” about? Everything. Also it’s about 90 minutes long. It’s also about the absurdity of life, even though we have very little choice other than to keep living it, and perhaps try to be slightly less ridiculous in doing so if we can - though that is certainly easier said than done.
“Just don’t become a nun.”
“You’re too hot.”
Anne (Stephanie Kahle), Genevieve (Hannah Leatherbarrow), and Isabel (Mariabella Sorini) are sisters collectively trying to make their way through life in a small Texas town. The play begins with Anne sharing the good news that she’s fallen in love with a guy named John (actually Juan) (Samuel Osborne-Huerta), introduced him to the family, married him and given birth to their child together. This is all in one conversation that keeps leapfrogging ahead in time on Genevieve’s front porch.
“I don’t get it. You had sex with a manual laborer?”
In similar fashion, also in the same opening conversation, Genevieve’s husband Steve (Ben Qualley) shares the unfortunate news that Juan is gay and probably just using Anne to get a green card. But then Steve also might be having an affair that will lead to the break up of his own marriage, so he hardly has room to criticize other people’s relationships. Anne isn’t entirely surprised by the news, since Juan frequently leaves to go to Plano, Texas, a mysterious destination where all manner of things can happen.
“There’s an intern, and our marriage won’t last the year.”
Also in this same conversation, Isabel announces that she won’t be completing her college education but instead is taking her religious convictions and desire to do good works to get out there in the world and start helping others, in Chicago.
“Do you think the slugs might be some sort of spiritual metaphor?”
Oh, and did i forget to mention the faceless ghost (Michael Hundevad) who starts the evening hanging out on the porch during the pre-show acoustic guitar set by co-director Em Adam Rosenberg, and then keeps wandering off, then reappearing in unexpected places?
“Now I’m looking at my garage where I still have all my ideas for songs.”
The sisters’ mother Mary (Jennifer D'Lynn) also makes a special guest appearance late in the action, just when you might have reached the conclusion that all the various permutations of different pairings and interactions onstage with the current ensemble couldn’t get any stranger.
“You’re so bad at conversation I want to strangle you.”
There are cowboys dancing together. There’s an infestation of slugs. There’s slow motion choreographed violence that gets progressively more absurd as the fight continues and ultimately devolves into a sort of family interpretative dance. There’s people who are constantly not quite present. There’s people who should go away but continue to haunt every corner of the house. There’s people that disappear into or pop up out of crawl spaces. And all the while this ensemble cast is latching onto the torrent of words that make up Arbery’s wild script and riding the thing like the wacky, vaguely menacing rollercoaster that it is.
“People sigh when your name comes up. Your name has a smelly loneliness about it.”
“Plano” is about how people are essentially unknowable, whether we’re related to them by blood, love or the bonds of friendship. But life is other people, so we have to find a way to co-exist, and help get each other through the weird stuff. The sisterly bond between Anne, Genevieve, and Isabel helps them get through a lot (even as men, and mothers, come and go).
“You’re just the ground we walk on to get where we’re going.”
The cast is fantastic. Co-directors Alex Church and Em Adam Rosenberg keep the pace of the comedy crackling along at a rapid clip, even as the plentiful laughs start mining darker subject matter. (This doesn’t come as a surprise because the three sisters - Kahle, Leatherbarrow and Sorini - were all part of the ensemble of Third Space Theater’s award-winning hit 2025 Fringe show “Breach” (another show that if you missed it, you’re kicking yourself right now). Sorini also co-wrote “Breach” with Church, while Rosenberg was another member of the “Breach” ensemble, and all five of them are the core company of Third Space. So they’ve got their style of collaborating down at this point already, and it shows with the results here in “Plano.”) The comedy never goes completely black, though, always taking an unexpected pivot and rebounding into the light from any number of shadowy corners. The underlying mood can get sad, but is always resilient. Genevieve’s front porch is a strange and funny melancholy place to spend an hour and a half ping-ponging through the three sisters’ lives.
“A tiny world without end we keep in a box.”
Big shout-out needs to go to the design team as well. Olivia von Edeskuty’s set design is a marvel. Perhaps it’s a commentary on the sad economics of theater these days, but it’s rare to see a full-on set from a smaller theater company. Here, though, we’ve got a full outer front porch, and inner porch leading to the front door of Genevieve’s home, plus a big red wooden fence on either side, and that aforementioned crawl space which gives the cast any number of ways to appear and disappear in ways that both do and don’t make logical sense, to keep everybody in the audience on their toes. And the cast really gives this set a workout, so kudos to set builders Roman Block, Elena Carlson, and Sydney Foss for making it such a sturdy base of operations.
“The one who made us is coming back a stranger.”
The directors also make full use of the Alan Page Auditorium at Mixed Blood Theatre, which makes for a fun time in a world so broad and deep. All of that means that lighting designer Jackson Funke (assisted by Joshua Fisher) has a lot of ground to cover, and cover it he does, creating all kinds of different looks and spaces in this world as things seem to start out realistic and get progressively stranger. Sam Faye King’s sound design adds the final layers of reality and unreality to this odd world the sisters live in. Olivia von Edeskuty is also the stage manager on the production (assisted by Aren Sondrol) and manages to keep this surreal family comedy/drama barreling along from start to finish with nary a hiccup in the process. No small feat.
“It’s later.”
“No it’s not, it’s still now.”
Third Space Theater is quickly becoming a company that regularly cranks out one unmissable production after another, which is a high but worthy bar for any group of artists to set for themselves. They believe in the power of the shared experience of theater, and they’ll make you a believer, too. Go see “Plano” and you’ll understand what I’m talking about.
Third Space Theater’s production of “Plano” runs through this Sunday January 18, 2026 at the Mixed Blood Theatre - Monday 1/12, Thursday 1/15, Friday 1/16, and Saturday 1/17 at 7:30pm, and Sunday 1/18 at 2pm.
5 Stars - Very Highly Recommended
(Photos: Top: Mother Mary (Jennifer D'Lynn) with daughters at her feet, (l-r) Genevieve (Hannah Leatherbarrow), Isabel (Mariabella Sorini) and Anne (Stephanie Kahle), in “Plano” from Third Space Theater
Middle: Dancing cowboys Juan (Samuel Osborne-Huerta), the Faceless Ghost (Michael Hundevad) and Steve (Ben Qualley) in “Plano” from Third Space Theater
Photos by Lydia Frank)
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