Before anyone’s spoken a word, you know Nikole Beckwith’s new comedy, “Everything Is Ours,” is going to be unusual.
Just take a gander at the set, a brightly colored living room out of a Tim Burton dream. Scenic designer John McDermott featured a door that leans sharply to the side, another that’s undersize. A desk globe not of the Earth but a disco ball. A couple of bunny statues lurk in corners — one seems made of chocolate.
This is the home of Sara (Katya Campbell) and Mitchell (Geoffrey Arend), the creators of successful Web sites like comebacktome.com, which supplies quick retorts to slow thinkers.
They’re wealthy — with two eager-beaver interns at their beck and call — and bored. Sara doesn’t even bother to watch one of Mitchell’s fencing matches in the garden.
“Since I quit smoking, standing around outside for no reason seems pointless,” she tells him.
The couple’s life is upended when Sara inherits a daughter she didn’t even know she had — she’d sold her eggs when she was 19 and broke.
The arrival of Elsie (Rachel Resheff), now 10, coincides with the visit of an old school friend of Mitchell and his wife. Tim (Adam Harrington) and Alice (Kate Cullen Roberts) are stereotypical smiley Midwesterners, and make for a hilarious contrast with their straightfaced hosts.
There’s a dark undercurrent to all this quirk, though. Alice desperately wants kids and tries to give advice to Sara, a clueless new parent.
“Children can’t handle adult honesty,” Alice says. “That’s why we invented pig Latin; so we can talk about things they aren’t equipped to handle while they’re in the same room and why we don’t teach them to read until they’re 7.”
This oddball matter-of-factness is exciting compared to the boring naturalism that stifles so many new plays. Granted, the show has rough spots — the pace flags, and director Adrienne Campbell-Holt could do more with the script’s farcical potential. But “Everything Is Ours” also introduces us to a fresh, idiosyncratic new voice. Let’s hope Beckwith flies her freak flag again soon.