Mariabella Sorini, Stephanie Kahle, and Hannah Leatherbarrow Photo by Lydia Frank

Given the difficulties inherent in getting a play up on stage in even the best of times–and, one can argue, these are hardly the "best of times"–Alex Church, artistic director of Third Space, and the company's team of theatre artists, are to be commended for the optimistic spirit to venture forward at all. On top of that, the company can be applauded for avoiding something safe and easy, but choosing this little-known play that is rife with challenges and rich with rewards.

If Plano, Arbery's first New York production which premiered in 2018, is not so well known, his follow-up that premiered just one year later, Heroes of the Fourth Turning, solidified the playwright's status as a major figure. Heroes was a 2020 Pulitzer Prize finalist, received the Lucille Lortel Award for "outstanding play," was named best play by the New York Drama Critics Circle, and Arbery won the Obie Award for Playwriting.

If Heroes has more fully developed ideas and characters, Plano is a firestorm of imagination. It is playful and combative, violent and comical. Arbery takes lunatic liberties with time throughout the play, having one character tell the others "Let's talk about that later," and then in a heartbeat, declare "It's later," and continue in what might be later that day, or the next week, or months later. This demonstrates Arbery's possibilities as a fresh new playwright, even if those elements don't fully coalesce into a solid form that enables one to answer the question "What was it about?" with certainty. As my guest at the play put it quite aptly, it seems like a kaleidoscope, through which you espy one delightful image, then give it a shake, and the same pieces rearrange into another delightful image.

Let us focus on the word "delightful." Co-directors Alex Church and Em Adam Rosenberg smartly put a light spin on Plano. This allows us to see bizarre business, surrealism, violence (one character is murdered, twice), confrontational conversation, and sensuous dance sequences (Rosenberg also choreographed), all while maintaining a chipper outlook, as if somehow all of the above could only result in a happy ending.

Plano mainly takes place in Dallas, Texas (where Arbery grew up), with the exception of a couple of phone calls and possibly one of those dance sequences, which take place in Plano. Plano is a large suburb north of Dallas. It didn't develop into anything substantial until the 1970s-1990s and is now the ninth largest city in Texas by population, with miles of sprawl and little historical core or identity. Depending on how one views such places, it can represent the sublime contentment promised by the American dream or the icy banality of that dream. The three sisters at the core of the play all resist going to Plano.

Meet the three sisters. Genevieve is the most combative one, ready to stick up for herself against all comers, and protective of her sisters as well. She is a potter who, at the start of the play, is married to a dullard named Steve. Anne is a professor who, at the start of the play, announces in one sitting that she has fallen in love, is getting married, and is pregnant. Her sisters oppose the marriage based on the fact that the man, Juan, who wants to be called John, works in a Mexican market and is not nearly her intellectual equal, plus he is almost certainly gay and using Ann to get a green card. Isabel is devoutly religious and considers God to be her husband. She wants to move to Chicago to do good works, while Anne and Genevieve think she will flounder so far from home.

The sisters confront one another, advise one another, bicker, laugh, and clearly love one another. They come across as a trio of survivors of a harrowing upbringing, each developing their own survival mechanisms which become their adult personas. About two thirds through the play, the arrival of another character, Mary, gives us a pretty good sense of what they had to contend with. Weird things happen, like when Steve splits into two physically identical Steves and when Anne's house becomes infested by large slugs, and Isabel finds that a faceless ghost has taken God's place in her life–things like that. Though the playwright assigns these and other surprises to the women, there is a sense by the end that not much has changed–their foundation continues to be their sisterly bond.

The seven cast members all gamely embody these distinctive characters. Stephanie Kahle as Anne (drowning in denial), Hannah Leatherbarrow as Genevieve (buoyed by ferocity), and Mariabella Sorini as Isabel (adrift in naivete), bring different types of energy to their respective roles and succeed in creating their unique natures while conveying an underlying blood connection that keeps them fixed in one another's orbit.

Ben Qualley delivers a wonderful comic performance as Steve, deadpan dull in his unitary form and becoming wildly more animated after splitting into two halves. Samuel Osborn-Huerta is effective as aloof John/Juan, eking out the minimum of assurance to his unfulfilled wife. As Mary, Jennifer D'Lynn is devastating in her effect on the three sisters. Michael Hundevad is the Faceless Ghost, a role that doesn't allow him to offer much as a character, but he is splendid paired with Sorini's Isabel in a pas de deux.

Plano takes place mainly on the porch and frontyard of the house. The exterior is Genevieve's house, but through the large front window we can see interior scenes taking place in Anne's house, all designed with effective simplicity by Olivia von Edeskuty. There is a trick feature built into the porch that facilitates one of the play's most surprising and enjoyable moments. Sam Faye King provides the effective sound design, and Jackson Funke designed the lighting, which guides our focus throughout the play.

I thoroughly enjoyed Plano while it was in progress and found myself tickled by the many surprises and overall weirdness Arbery has laced through the play. Third Space Theater has done a fine job in mounting their premiere mainstage production, and earned my anticipation of what they have in store next. The freshness of both the play and the production make it worth seeing. Just don't expect to be able to tell your friends what it was all about. Or perhaps, what it means to be about is that sometimes there's no telling what our lives are about. I'll give that some thought, and we can talk about it later. It's later...

Plano, a production of Third Space Theater, runs through January 18, 2026, at Mixed Blood Theatre, Alan Page Auditorium, 1501 S. Fourth Street, Minneapolis MN. For tickets and information, please email thirdspaceth@gmail.com or visit Tix.Gobo.show.

Playwright: Will Arbery; Directors: Alex Church & Em Adam Rosenberg; Choreographer: Em Adam Rosenberg; Set Design: Olivia Von Edeskuty; Lighting Design: Jackson Funke Sound Design: Sam Fay King; Mask Design: Robert McGrady; Stage Manager: Olivia von Edeskuty; Assistant Stage Manager: Aren Sondrol; Producer: Alex Church.

Cast: Jennifer D'Lynn: Mary; Michael Hundevad (Faceless Ghost), Stephanie Kahle (Anne), Hannah Leatherbarrow (Genevieve), Samuel Osborne-Huerta (John/Juan), Ben Qualley (Steve), Mariabella Sorini (Isabel).