Argentine short story writer Jorge Luis Borges was a master at exploring fantastic scenarios with scholarly precision — as if they were factual — and usually ones with complex philosophical implications that he went into with relish.
Oakland Theater Project goes deep into one such tale with Lisa Ramirez’s new play “Book of Sand (a fairytale),” based on Borges’ 1975 short story “The Book of Sand” (“El libro de arena”).
OTP’s associate artistic director, Ramirez is the playwright of past productions “To the Bone,” “Exit Cuckoo (nanny in motherland),” “Down Here Below” and “sAiNt jOaN (burn/burn/burn).” As an actor she’s starred in several of the company’s shows as well, such as “The Waste Land” and the recent “The Crucible.”
In “Book of Sand,” a mysterious bible peddler sells the narrator a book with an infinite number of pages, with no beginning or end, in which no page once turned can ever be seen again. As with many such wondrous items in many such stories, it proves to be more of a burden than a boon.
Ramirez’s adaptation follows the original closely, quoting from it freely, while expanding it and taking it in new directions along the way. For one thing, she completely reinvents the character of the bookseller, who sticks around in this version long after the original departed.
Kevin Rebultan is marvelously compelling as the mild-mannered first-person narrator as he gradually descends from gentle curiosity to torment. He wins you over early on with his good-humored placidity and keeps you closely invested as he moves through increasingly agitated bewilderment to panting, writhing desperation. It’s a riveting performance.
Carla Gallardo’s bible seller is in a way a simpler, more archetypal figure: the menacing, magical woman of mystery. While Rebultan’s character changes markedly over the course of the play, Gallardo’s remains relatively unchanged as a volatile, unknowable antagonist.
Clad in a punk-style tattered and elaborately decorated jacket (costumes by Alice Ruiz), she seems at first to be another victim of the book, shakily huddled over it. But once she approaches Rebultan she circles him, leering like a predator, challenging his narration with mocking commentary and commanding him to further explore the book. Even once she ostensibly leaves him, she looms over him from the platform as if casting some sinister spell on him, singing and reciting competing, complementary or echoing literary passages.
From time to time she convulses, hollering in a burst of light and sound like some prophet or otherworldly being, for reasons as unknown by play’s end as they are when it first occurs. Strange things happen, and there’s not always a why.
Director Susannah Martin’s dynamic staging immerses the viewer in the elliptical magic of the tale. Karla Hargrave’s set gives a fanciful take on the story’s themes with numerous book pages hanging from the ceiling and others wallpapering a mezzanine-like platform lining the stage and a smaller platform that opens into a book that is also a sandbox.
Stephanie Anne Johnson’s shifting lights add to the unnerving atmosphere. Peppered with prominent sections of songs by Patti Smith, Neil Young, Pink Floyd, Santo & Johnny and “Man of La Mancha,” Elton Bradman’s sound design also features several voiceover literary recitations.
As the protagonist leafs through the book — or tries to hold onto sand in the metaphor made literal on stage — he or the voiceovers or sometimes the bookseller recite quotations from Borges writings as well as a multitude of other authors such as James Joyce and Ralph Ellison. There’s even a lovely, profound passage reportedly written by Rebultan.
It’s a suitable tribute to everything that makes Borges’ work so fascinating and resonant, even as Ramirez and the cast and creative team make the story unmistakably their own. After all, a story is not a static thing but something alive and ever evolving that’s never read, heard or retold quite the same way twice.
Contact Sam Hurwitt at shurwitt@gmail.com, and follow him at Twitter.com/shurwitt.
‘THE BOOK OF SAND’
World premiere by Lisa Ramirez, based on the story by Jorge Luis Borges, presented by Oakland Theater Project
Through: Dec. 4 (also live-streamed Nov. 26, available On Demand Dec. 3-Jan. 3)
Where: FLAX art & design, 1501 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland
Running time: 75 minutes, no intermission
Tickets: $10-$52; www.oaklandtheaterproject.com
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