Mark Landis directs this wildly imaginative comedy by one of the theatre's hippest new playwrights, Eric Overmeyer. Three women explorers set out on an expedition in the year 1888. They brave the darkest forests, climb mountains, cross fields of ice, and, eventually, ring the gas station bell at Woody's Esso in 1955 America. They also encounter a most bizarre assortment of creatures and artifacts along the way. Nothing is impossible in this outrageous adventure.
Director's Notes:
Terra Incognita! This play provides a lot of unexplored territory in which to ... play. Since the allusions — as well as the illusions — which appear so unexpectedly in this play refer to television, B movies, sci-fi, rock and roll and junk food, I think we should take it as a compliment that Eric Overmyer assumes that the same Americans who would "get" these pop-cultural references can also appreciate clever word play and references to modern history.
Those of us who are part of either of the two American "television" generations to reach adulthood — the so-called Baby Boomers and Generation X'ers — can rightfully claim that the popular culture that has been spread so rampantly over the airwaves has not, in fact, made us stupid. If we speak in slang it doesn't mean that we have limited vocabularies. If we like to watch T.V., it doesn't mean we've forgotten the pleasures of reading. Eric Overmyer, a baby boomer with both a gift for eloquence and a taste for "cheese," is part of a circle of new dramatists, whose plays are, so far, as unmapped and gloriously untamed as Terra Incognita! Big Fun!
Mark Landis
September 1994