*** One of  my favorite parts of attending a performance at Rivendell Theatre is the creativity of the women who run this company. Tonight, I viewed the final production of their 30th season, a one-act play titled “Bonnie’s Last Flight” written by Eliza Bent and directed by Devon de Mayo. This very small venue has been transformed to be an airplane ( the set by Regina Garcia is almost believable), and the play itself is indeed a flight for the 40-something audience members. As I always say,”good things come in small packages,” and Rivendell proves it every time!

You arrive at the theater, check in and are assigned a loading number. There are three groups, and each group is seated in order. I do not think there are any assigned seats, but I will tell you that those in the first row were offered a snack, so be prepared to nibble on a brownie. Once we were all seated, our flight attendants, Greig ( Paul Oakley Stovall is quite the hoot), Lee Anne ( Jessica Ervin) and Jan ( deftly handled by Rebecca Spence) take over with some dialogue that will make you feel as if you are indeed a passenger on a plane, heading somewhere.

it comes out that Jan is in actuality on her last flight, having given her notice, and everyone, except Greig knows that, so I am still unsure as to why the play is not named “Jan’s Last Flight”*. We then meet the pilot ( played to perfection by Eric Slater) and his co-pilot (Glenn Obrero ), aka Jesus. There is one more character who pops in and out. The character is Mark Twain (  LaKecia Harris seems to be having a ball with this role ).

While we are on this flight, we learn about each of the characters in the story. Their pasts, their potential, their dreams, their regrets, and possibly their futures. There are some musical moments where we have dancing in the aisles ( sound by Satya Chavez). The lighting ( Garrett Bell) is unique, and the costumes (Saawan Tiwari) are pretty realistic. As I had mentioned, Garcia’s set looked pretty realistic, although designed so that an audience could see the action. The take-off was probably the most unusual part of the play, but was adorable and if you love Gershwin’s “An American In Paris”, you will love this sequence. Sam Lancaster’s props were pretty realistic, yet they never offered us a bag of peanuts or a beverage.

There is a landing situation that may feel wrong, but it works to relate all the stories that need to be brought to finality, and de Mayo gets it done to satisfy all who took the flight.  The run time for this flight is 89 minutes ( no intermission) and despite the problems near the end, we landed safely, and all of the characters seemed to be okay, with some extra things to think about. By the way, so did we! They passed out cards for us to fill out as to our thoughts for the future. I don’t know what they will do with those, but it added some realism to the story. I wonder how many people wrote down “Where’s Bonnie”?

“Bonnie’s Last Flight” will continue through – Oct 25th with performances as follows: