By Eric George Tauber
SAN DIEGO — Golden Shards is a new theatre company in town, one that divides its time between San Diego and New York. For director Alice Cash, it’s a homecoming. I remember Alice as a bright and bubbly highschooler writing the teen column for San Diego Theatre Scene. Now, she and her company of MFA graduates from the New School for Drama have brought “8000 M” to the Moxie Theatre in Rolando.
Ever since Sir Edmund Hillary successfully ascended Mount Everest in 1953, extreme mountain climbing has become a much-needed source of revenue for the poor, isolated nation of Nepal. But since there can only be one first, climbers try to find different angles: a different route, going solo, being the youngest, the oldest, a woman….
And Everest isn’t the only game in town. As the world’s fourth highest peak, Lhotse is kind of like Everest’s kid sister. But with a sheer, 8,000 meter drop, it’s daunting. Dangers include altitude sickness, oxygen deprivation, freezing and avalanches. Chunks of ice and boulders as large as buildings descend with a great roar and little warning.
Mountain climbers have a community with their own rock stars. Training is grueling, requiring total commitment and trust. A climber’s rope goes to a belayer who monitors and communicates with the climber. If a climber slips, the belayer stops the fall. They literally put their lives in each other’s hands.
To pay for these exotic expeditions, most climbers need sponsors. Corporate sponsors can use the publicity from these exploits to sell clothing, equipment, energy drinks and –in this case- butter cookies. This added some needed wry humor to a tragic tale.
Ellie McPherson plays Erica, the Ice Climber. It’s pretty unusual for a woman to be the lead climber, but she’s a pretty unusual woman. Tough and prickly, she’s easy to admire but difficult to like. Such a demanding diversion puts a great strain on family life. We only see her interact with her husband in brief, long-distance calls. He’s anxious for her safety and tired of the stress as they drift apart.
Nick Chris is the most likable of the bunch. As the wacky and impish professor, he always has a flask and some weed handy. The rest of the team consists of Jak Watson, a serious climber who’s intensely aware of the dangers they face. Ryan Feyk, who doubles as Erica’s husband and an Alpinist who’s in a relationship with Ashley Underwood, a plucky young writer who’s covering the expedition. Joseph Lyle Dunn is bright-eyed and energetic as the sponsor. He’s not just holding the purse strings, he’s learning the ropes.
How do you put the majestic Himalayas on a small stage? An experimental piece, they used bare staging, ropes and a white sheet. Words and imagination do the rest. Some of the actors play multiple roles. But with no costume elements to indicate different characters, the shifts can get a little confusing.
Personally, I don’t get why extreme climbers do what they do. Jewish history teaches us that life precarious enough as it is. And I would like to have heard more from the Sherpas’ point of view. The Hillary expedition treated the Sherpas with great respect. Now that it has become a feather in a rich man’s cap, more recent climbers tend to treat them as the help. This has engendered resentment, but Nepal needs the money. The people and some of the politics are mentioned, but we don’t get to meet any of them.
Golden Shards gives us a harrowing tale that forces us to really use our imaginations to enter a terrifying world. “8000 M” plays Nov 15-18th, 2018 at the Moxie Theatre.
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Tauber is a freelance writer based in San Diego. He may be contacted via eric.tauber@sdjewishworld.com