Now playing: Junk at the Living Room Theatre

December 16, 2015

Liz Cook,

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Late addendum to the list “Things That Make You Nostalgic for Leaning Against Buildings and Smoking Cloves”: Emma Carter’s Junk, a hip, homegrown play stretching its legs at the Living Room.

Carter’s script, plucked from the theater’s playwriting class and subsequent Writer’s Den series, follows two 20-something Seattle roommates seeking salve for old wounds. Junk-artist Gabe (Ben Auxier, stumbling into women with the hit rate of a truffle pig) drafts a whimsical “not-a-bucket list” to help him recover from a bad breakup. His roommate, Al (Melissa Fennewald, with Meg Ryan charm), helps him check off the boxes, secretly hoping, perhaps, to be next in line.

Carter braids Gabe’s past and present in short, cinematic scenes that drive home what he has lost (Quinn, requisite Manic Pixie Dream Girl) and what he has found (Al, recovering fuckup and ambiguously rape-y caretaker). Fans of indie-quirk odes to romance and brokenness — I’m brooding at you, Garden State — will fall for Carter’s easygoing dialogue and oddball characters. But the script is funny in its own geeky, big-hearted way, its sarcasm masking a core of sincerity.

Natalie Liccardello and Tim Ahlenius direct, eliciting top-notch performances from Auxier, Fennewald and supporting players Erika Baker and Alisa Lynn. Come for the bittersweet meet-cutes, stay for the all-Mountain Goats score.