by Patrick White
The extraordinary contemporary play about community in America, Deep Blue Sound by Abe Koogler,continues its journey delighting audiences and challenging theater artists with its production by Silverthorne Theater Company currently running at Emily Dickinson Hall at Hampshire College through 7/26.
The play made its world premiere as part of Clubbed Thumb’s Summerworks Festival at The Wild Project on Manhattan’s East 3rd Street in 2023. It then had a well received, extended run at The Public Theatre in the Spring of 2025. Locally, Harbinger produced it at Steamer 10 Theatre last September and received two Berkies for Chris Foster, their director and Tony Pallone for featured actor in his role as Chris and Alexander. I’ve seen all four of these productions and even scheduled and produced the Harbinger production. Needless to say, I like the play…a lot. I would go see it again tonight, especially Silverthorne’s production.
The company is new to me but I won’t miss many of their future shows. I love their play selections. I really wanted to see their production of Jordan Harrison’s The Amateurs last summer and any company that produces Branden Jacobs-Jenkins will get my support. Their previous show this year was Martyna Majok’s powerful play about citizenship, Sanctuary City.
Deep Blue Sound is about a community who live on an island a short ferry ride from Seattle which is known for its strong individuality, it’s Strawberry Festival which decides its Ceremonial Mayor and its pod of migratory Orca whales which have gone missing when the play opens. Playwright Abe Koogler (Kill Floor, Fulfillment Center) has said he based it on Vashon Island where he grew up.
The first 12 pages of the script feature the cast as Islanders introducing us to our surroundings, the situation, the characters involved, who they play and what’s involved. It is a bravura piece of overlapping dialogue, filled with laughs, crucial information, tossed off asides (“A lot to keep track of. Don’t try and keep track. Just give up now.”) and intimate familiarity among the ensemble and the Silverthorne cast nails it, performing it, as well, if not better than any production I’ve seen.
Besides the whales, which are a constant concern in the play, the play is populated with 15 fascinating multi-dimensional characters who make exceptionally strong impressions with brief scenes. There’s a couple Chris (Nisse Greenberg) and Mary (Tracy Einstein) who have spilt up and battle with hushed urgency and are a hairsbreadth away from a restraining order.
Imani Bibuld, Tracy Einstein, and Jamie Berger in Silverthorne Theater Company’s production of “Deep Blue Sound” by Abe Koogler, directed by Ezekiel Baskin. Photo: Frank Aronson. 
Jamie Berger, Tracy Einstein, and Dana Harrison in Silverthorne Theater Company’s production of “Deep Blue Sound” by Abe Koogler, directed by Ezekiel Baskin. Photo: Frank Aronson. 
Tracy Einstein, Gina Kaufmann, Imani Bibuld, Mary Beth Brooker, Moe McElligott, and Dana Harrison in Silverthorne Theater Company’s production of “Deep Blue Sound” by Abe Koogler, directed by Ezekiel Baskin. Photo: Frank Aronson. 
Dana Harrison in Silverthorne Theater Company’s production of “Deep Blue Sound” by Abe Koogler, directed by Ezekiel Baskin. Photo: Frank Aronson. 
Mary Beth Brooker and Dana Harrison in Silverthorne Theater Company’s production of “Deep Blue Sound” by Abe Koogler, directed by Ezekiel Baskin. Photo: Frank Aronson. 
There’s Ella who has finished her chemo and is dying of cancer played by the Shakespeare & Company favorite Dana Harrison in my favorite performance of the evening as it is filled with contradictory impulses. She has alienated her friends at this critical time and befriended the local editor Joy Mead (Mary Beth Brooker) to write her obituary who has quite the colorful history with a cult of her own. Ella encourages her storytelling.
Indelible portraits were also made by the very defensive Mayor Annie (Gina Kaufmann) who is determined to make her ceremonial tenure count and John who feels shutout by Ella and tries to befriend Homeless Gary (Joseph Wright) with offers of a job chopping his wood and dinner. Moe McElligot plays what must be a tricky position, a therapist on a small island and Imani Bibuld is Ari, who has returned home to care for her mother and is going through something of a crisis herself.
All of the characters and their relationships seem to be in flux and we are well aware of the environmental change that we are entering a new era. Director Ezekiel Baskin is at his best delineating these interactions with his small cast. The play is staged very simply with the cast thrillingly creating a flock of migratory birds and a whale (Joseph Wright again) cresting the ocean’s surface. I wish he hadn’t used offstage voices and we could have seen Nisse Greenburg’s two other characters represented onstage.
This is a fantastic contemporary play. Every time I see it, I appreciate it more. It has rich subject matter, great characters for accomplished actors to play and room for a lot of creative staging ideas, all of which are represented in abundance here. I urge you to check out Silverthorne’s lovingly created Deep Blue Sound. It’s worth the dive!
Silverthorne Theater Company presents “Deep Blue Sound” by Abe Koogler, directed by Ezekiel Baskin, running July 16-26, 2026 in Emily Dickinson Hall at Hampshire College in Amherst, MA. CAST: Jamie Berger, Imani Bibuld, Mary Beth Brooker, Tracy Einstein, Nisse Greenberg, Dana Harrison*, Gina Kaufmann, Moe McElligott, and Joseph Wright.
The Mainstage Theater in Emily Dickinson Hall at Hampshire College is located at 893 West Street in Amherst, MA. Phone: 413-213-2435. Email: silverthornetheater@gmail.com https://silverthornetheater.org/