The acting is superb in Upstream Theater’s production of Meet Me at Dawn.

Robyn and Helen are the longtime couple in the fascinating play by Zinnie Harris. They are frantic and confused at the start. Because Harris delays revealing what has happened to them, the opening creates a sense of disorientation that mirrors what the characters are experiencing.

Even after the situation has become clear, Robyn and Helen find new reasons to be agitated. They have washed ashore on a beach after a boating accident, but they don’t know where they are. They have no food, no way of communicating, and no way to get home to fulfill their obligations.

Throughout the play, Harris focuses on how characters are processing the circumstances they have found themselves in. Lizi Watt as Robyn and Michelle Hand as Helen brilliantly capture the spontaneity of characters’ thinking as well as the full range of their emotions.

Hand and Watt make the couple’s intimacy no less striking than the frenzy of the chaotic opening. Both the strains and the solace in Helen and Robyn’s relationship are portrayed with compelling insight under Larissa Lury’s direction and Jocelyn Padilla’s intimacy coordination.

The play has an atmosphere of mystery that is enhanced by Patrick Huber’s scenic design, Lou Bird’s costumes, Tony Anselmo’s lighting, Kristi Gunther’s sound, Rachel Seabaugh’s properties, and David Schuman’s scenic painting.

Meet Me at Dawn continues through April 27 at The Marcelle, 3310 Samuel Shepard Drive.

—Gerry Kowarsky

Photo by ProPhotoSTL
From the left, Lizi Watt as Robyn and Michelle Hand as Helen in Meet Me at Dawn.