When the narrator of “A Map of Virtue” turned out to be a bird statue, the play stopped working for me. Sadly, that was in the first few minutes.
This latest effort, presented by the playwrights collective 13P, is the sort of pseudo-poetic, pretentious effort that’s ripe for parody.
Erin Courtney’s drama concerns a series of encounters between the deeply neurotic Sarah (Maria Striar), an artist, and the equally odd Mark (Jon Norman Schneider), who are joined together by their shared fascination with birds. She has tattoos of them on her chest, while he clings to a tiny bird figurine (played by the full-grown but ethereal Birgit Huppuch) that’s a grotesque souvenir of his childhood sexual abuse by a schoolmaster.
After some elaborate plot machinations, including Sarah’s paintings of the statue and Mark’s slashing of the same, the two, plus Sarah’s husband (Alex Draper), find themselves lost in the woods, where they’re held captive by a pair of crazies. One of them wears a giant bird mask.
Divided into parts labeled “Curiosity,” “Empathy,” “Loyalty” and so on, “Map” is clearly tackling big themes. Now and then, one of the characters interrupts the action to warble a mournful song while playing a banjo.
Director Ken Rus Schmoll stages much of the dreamlike action in very dim light on the far recess of the stage, making it barely discernible, and also conducive to a nice nap.