Be careful what you wish for, goes the old saying; you just might get it. But then again, maybe you'll get something entirely different. In Brian Howrey's surrealistic comedy, it's often unclear what sphere we're in—reality vs. fantasy, past vs. present, conscious vs. subconscious, death vs. life—as a fanciful fairy-tale world and real life collide. Does the chicken come before the egg? There's no chicken involved, but eggs play an amusing role. They're laid, literally, by deceased fairy-tale writer Fanny (Rebecca Gray), and each one contains nuggets of data pertinent to the story she's spinning as she enters the characters' dreams to merge her allegoric imagery with their innermost desires.
The fun of Howrey's playful and heartwarming new work is unraveling the labyrinth of overlapping details that culminate in alternately tragic and happy endings. We're clued in to the playwright's loopy sense of humor early on when we're told of the death of a character in a baking accident—a sly reference to Sondheim's Into the Woods. Here's the essential rub: Puppeteer Hilda (Jennifer Ann Evans) and her co-worker Eddie (Richard Werner), a techie on the Punch-and-Judy puppet show, are in an emotional fog. The insomnia-ridden Hilda pines for her deceased lesbian lover, Fanny, continually recalling their lives together as documented in her diary. Eddie is sexually impotent and romantically frustrated after a disappointing past encounter. From the hereafter, Fanny periodically enters the psyches of the characters with a narrative about a young man who goes on a quest to the Land of the Storks to ensure motherhood for a childless princess. The psychological journeys of the real-life and fairy-tale characters intertwine in amusing and thought-provoking ways.
Howrey's point is that we'd like to believe we engineer our own hopes and dreams, but the road to fulfillment is sometimes a circuitous path. The cycles of love and birth are miraculous, and happiness often finds us, showing us what we truly want vs. what we thought we wanted. Director Ann-Giselle Spiegler imbues the material with the perfect whimsical touch, and she helms a spirited ensemble. As the warbling, mischievous story lady, Gray is marvelously droll while eliciting moments of poignancy when we least expect them. Evans and Werner sparkle, likewise finding the humor and warmth of their characters. Phinneas Kiyomura and Claudia Choi provide versatile support, using minimal dialogue to portray characters ranging from the Punch-and-Judy puppets to the childless royal couple.
John Palmer's bare-bones set is modestly effective, while Sabrina Fiander-Benson's colorful costumes and Howrey's enchanting original music impart a magical tone. Most fairy tales don't include full-frontal nudity. Howrey's charming and profoundly resonant fable is a story about family, but we wouldn't call it a family show.
"The Fairy Tale Engineers," presented by and at Theatre of NOTE, 1517 Cahuenga Blvd., Hollywood. Thurs.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 4 p.m. July 5-Aug. 17. $15. (323) 856-8611.