Rough Magic staging second work by Lincoln playwright

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By KEFF KORBELIK / GZO

Lincoln playwright Robert Stewart and Rough Magic Productions are developing a nice relationship.

For the second time in less than a year, the theater company is producing a play by him.

Rough Magic opened Stewart’s “The Mutants” on Thursday night, with the run continuing through Aug. 16.

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(Courtesy art)

(Courtesy art)

Last fall, the company staged the playwright’s “speed & a red interior,” which Journal Star theater critic Larry Kubert called “a short thematic piece that addresses humanity’s incessant (and futile) search for self and satisfaction.”

“Robert is a real talent,” said Jack Carpenter, “The Mutants” director and former Rough Magic artistic director. “He’s a very smart guy. He has two other plays that Rough Magic might tackle soon.”

“The Mutants” chronicles the journey of a submersible known as “The Wren” and its three-man crew as they explore the ocean depths for new and exciting discoveries.

But they find more than they bargained for, with a voyage this remote, fantastic and isolated resulting in a variety of changes.

“It doesn’t go well, in any case,” said Carpenter, who is back in Lincoln this summer after completing his first year of graduate school in Illinois. “The play is about changing loyalties, mutations and lost love … things like that.”

Stewart began writing “The Mutants” last summer, saying he wanted to address the themes of separation and isolation.

“This is what I came up with,” he said.

The Great Plains Theatre Conference in Omaha selected his work to be read at its May event, which Stewart said went “really well.”

“I received some good and interesting comments from the people who watched it,” he said. “The three judges gave me a lot of good feedback.”

The Rough Magic production features Ben Tibbels, Will Heafer, Matt Gee, Sean McGill and Sarah Craig.

“(The play) is so poetic, and the language absolutely beautiful,” said Carpenter, who compared Stewart’s style to contemporary Irish playwright Martin McDonagh. “He’s very good at verbal storytelling.”

Reach Jeff Korbelik at 473-7213 or jkorbelik@journalstar.com.