Content warning: This article mentions the topics of child sexual abuse, rape, child loss and drug use.
On Valentine’s Day, Thunder River Theatre Company (TRTC) debuted its third main stage show, “Tiny Beautiful Things.” It runs 82 minutes total with no intermission and takes audiences on a journey through the spectrum of the human condition, with self-discovery, trauma, healing and, at the core of it all, finding love, community and kindness in even the most difficult of circumstances.
The show follows writer Cheryl Strayed, portrayed by Jennifer Austin Hughes, as she takes on the role of an advice columnist for The Rumpus, an online literary magazine, under the pen name Sugar. Through this, she and the other three cast members, Brian Landis Folkins as Letter Writer #1, Jen Klink as Letter Writer #2 and Taylor Barr as Letter Writer #3, see Sugar slowly crack open while offering both messy and profound insight to those who write in for her column. The questions range from “How do I make friends?” and “How do I make my dreams a reality?” to the most telling question, with an answer that may take your breath away, “What the [censored]?”
“If we’re looking for a throughline [for the show], it’s love,” Barr told The Sopris Sun. “Every single scene is just infused with some amount and type of love.”
The cast and crew, including TRTC Artistic Director Missy Moore (also the director of this production) and Stage Manager Katelyn Tyk, stated that working on this production provided an excellent look at how connections between people are formed through the vulnerability of their lived experiences. Moore specifically said this is the perfect show for audiences to see when needing a reminder they are not alone.
“It takes a community to bring theater to the community,” she said. “It’s a symbiotic relationship, and this play captures it among strangers. I think it’s being presented at a time when collectively — and I’m getting a little political here — we as a species so desperately need it. We need to be reminded that we’re not alone.”
Landis Folkins echoed her sentiments, telling us, “It is the most human play that I’ve read. It covers the gamut of emotions, and it really expresses what it is to be human through connection with other people.”
Each letter writer takes on the role of a different person asking for advice, including a woman who asks if she should share her experience of being raped with her boyfriend, a young person asking for advice on how to navigate life with an abusive and narcissistic parent and a grieving father who lost his son to a drunk driving incident.
Hughes does not hold back in her portrayal of Sugar. Her character details her struggles with heroin addiction, the grief she carries from losing her mother, her experience with having had an abortion and harrowingly in her response to the “What the [censored]?” question.
“This play, in every sense of the word, demands everyone involved reach for the ordinary, the miraculous or for the tiny, beautiful things,” Moore stated. “You can sit and be your own silo of sadness, or you can choose to reach out, and it’s done in this show in the way of an advice column.”
I struggle to find the professional words to describe how deeply this show cut me open as a reviewer. I found myself laughing along and relating to the more innocent questions, only to have all the air sucker punched out of me with the themes of loss, grief, mortality, love and heartbreak. How beautiful things can blossom from the pain we all live through becomes evermore centric to the story as it progresses. This show gutted me and sewed me back together with a surgeon’s mercy.
Many times, it was as though a mirror reflecting the human spirit was held up to face the audience, which outlined and dissected the very raw and relatable pain of the letter writers back to those in the seats. Despite how heavy the show gets, I recommend seeing it with the courage to have your heart broken and the knowledge that hope and love will find their way back to you through the strength and courage it takes to be vulnerable.
To purchase tickets for “Tiny Beautiful Things,” visit www.thunderrivertheatre.com