Last weekend, Contraband Theatre opened a new play by founding member and playwright Jacob Juntunen. See You in a Minute, directed by Ellie Schwetye, is a thoughtful and thought-provoking drama that thoroughly entertains while subtly encouraging self-reflection. I had an opportunity to chat with the playwright and the show’s lead performer, Ricki Franklin, prior to attending the play’s preview.
See You in a Minute is set in 2041 during a major pandemic that includes lockdowns and risk warnings associated with individual health states. Kathryn, a successful education director at a theater in New York City, was five during the 2020 pandemic. She has returned to her hometown, St. Louis, to care for her family, who protected her then. Though the show is set in the future, the play references the 2020 pandemic, potentially touching on unresolved feelings that audience — and cast — members may be experiencing.
In 2018, Juntunen, his wife and young daughter moved to St. Louis from Carbondale, Illinois, where he is a professor at SIU-Carbondale. Franklin graduated from college and moved back to St. Louis in 2019. Both were just getting fully integrated with living here when the pandemic changed everything.
“I was set to start my dream job in March 2020 and eager to start auditioning as well,” Franklin recalls. “But my start date kept getting pushed back until it just disappeared.”
The uncertainty both felt during the lockdown is reflected in the urgency and palpable insecurity felt throughout the new play, which includes multiple flashbacks to Kathryn’s memories from 2020.
“In many ways, it feels like there’s so much we haven’t processed in terms of loss, grief and the broader and often unacknowledged change in how we work and interact,” Juntunen says. “By jumping forward, the play gives us space to examine those overlooked feelings.” Franklin agrees, adding that playing Kathryn had helped her process what she had gone through.
Juntunen emphasizes that conversations between himself, director Schwetye and the cast were key to the final production. “The process of creation, the collaborative input, gave the script a malleable sense that’s specific to each performer’s experience,” he says. “As a living playwright, I can observe and incorporate their interpretation to create a more effective, genuine play.”
See You in a Minute, with its fixed parameters, complete plot and growth-focused story arc, is the first full play response to the COVID-19 pandemic that I’ve seen. Franklin, Joseph Garner, Kelly Howe and Joshua Mayfield turn in authentically sympathetic performances, and Franklin charmingly shifts from age 5 to mid-20s in ways that are true to the character’s essence. The layered play is terrifically engaging and resonant, though it runs about 15 to 20 minutes longer than needed. Careful editing and narrowing the subplot about Our Town could address that issue, as the performances are strong and believably connected, offering a dramatic, emotionally satisfying reflection on a global trauma.
Contraband Theatre aims to be a theater for the whole community, providing “pay what you wish” ticket pricing to its performances, offering panel discussions after select performances and reaching out to area schools and colleges with post-show hangouts with the artists and performers involved in the show. In short, Juntunen says, “our goal is to reach out to communities that may not normally see theater to talk about their expertise and how it relates to art.”
See You in a Minute is written by Jacob Juntunen and directed by Ellie Schwetye. It is presented by Contraband Theatre at the Chapel (6238 Alexander Drive, contrabandtheatre.org) through Saturday, October 28. Showtimes vary, and tickets are $30.
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