Lungs

Lesley Faulkner and Brendan Gall in Lungs. Photo by Cylla von Tiedemann.

British playwright Duncan MacMillan’s Lungs is a touching and humorous exploration of the daunting litany of fears and worries facing a middle-class 30-something couple as they confront the essential yet distinctly modern dilemma: to reproduce or not to reproduce?

We first meet M (Brendan Gall) and W (Lesley Faulkner) in line at IKEA, as a typical bickering match takes an unexpected turn when M (occupation: guy in a band) not-so-tactfully suggests that maybe they should have a baby. This sends W, a decidedly neurotic PhD student with a tendency to think globally and catastrophize often, into a tailspin of worry about the ethics of brining a child into the world. What follows is a very wordy, sometimes funny, sometimes sad exploration of modern love in the age of anxiety. M and W are somewhat endearing, if not necessarily likeable, and it’s hard not to wonder what they would talk about in the days before the 24-hour news cycle, but I think that’s kind of the point.

Weyni Mengesha’s completely stripped down presentation brilliantly offsets MacMillan’s challenging script, and both Gall and Faulkner should be commended for sustaining momentum throughout this verbal marathon. The play’s many ellipses are particularly impressive, evoking a palpable sense of the collapsing and expanding of time as the audience is entreated to contemplate the essential uncertainty of our lives.

Lungs runs until March 30 at Tarragon Theatre. Visit tarragontheatre.com for more information and to buy tickets.