When we hear the word “postapocalyptic,” we think of packs of oafish goons wearing haphazard armor, carrying makeshift weapons, roaming the Earth like they're auditioning for Beyond Thunderdome. We just heard about the new Sleepwalkers Theatre production, The Nature Line, which is postapocalyptic. But it has none of these scruffy Road Warriors rolling wheeled barges across the desert. See, the postapocalypse comes in stages. And this is stage three – the final play in a trilogy by J.C. Lee – so clubs and combat are probably not needed anymore. What's needed, though, is determination and cunning, because the world has become cold and sterile, and the clampdown is on. There was a big epidemic, and people live in fear. So any type of touch has been outlawed. There's no sexual contact – children are conceived in clinics through mysterious procedures that are often unsuccessful. Along comes Aya, who wants to escape this makeshift civilization with its haphazard rules. She hears about a point where this terrible structure ends, where “forests have reclaimed pavement! And vines have choked the life out of vending machines!” (Did we mention the play tempers the dire undertone with comical elements?) Aya leaves, looking for human contact and her lost children. What she finds might just be the beginning of a new world. (Unless those Road Warrior extras find her first.)
Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m. Starts: Aug. 4. Continues through Aug. 27, 2011
415-336-1020
