Ever heard a pre-show “turn off your cell phones” speech delivered by a whistling bird and her human translator before? No?

Well, that’s just the first of many surreal elements in Carla Milarch’s play Jorge Luis Borges Gives a Lecture on Anatomy, now having its world premiere at Theatre Nova, in a production directed by Kat Walsh.

I will confess up front that while I studied literature for years, I never read Borges’ work, so this review comes from a place of ... ignorance? Curiosity? Both?

Yet given the boisterous, life-embracing version of Borges that appears on Theatre Nova’s stage, courtesy of actor Phil Powers, I think it likely that the author himself would approve of me tiptoeing into his literary imagination by way of Milarch’s play.

And make no mistake. Lecture is a trippy vibe of a ride, which shouldn’t surprise those who have read Borges.

Structured in three disparate acts, Lecture first features Borges—surrounded by a fly (Katherine Lengyel), the aforementioned bird (Lauren Routledge), a medicine showman (Jonathan Jones), and other mysterious characters—addressing the audience directly, mentioning a slated lecture on anatomy while never actually delivering one. Instead, a son (Leif TenBrink) Borges has dreamed into existence appears, and Borges struggles to solve the puzzle of how to keep young Adam, who always fails to return from the labyrinth, from leaving him again.

The second act, inspired by Jay Parini’s “based on true events” road novel Borges and Me: An Encounter, follows Borges’ adventure with grad student Parini in Scotland. Though they soon learn that the man Borges (now blind) intended to visit lives in Inverness, New Zealand (not Scotland), they stay, and Borges conjures his sister, Norah (Maggie Hilliard), who discusses the siblings’ shared youth in Argentina under authoritarian president Juan Peron.

Finally, the play’s third act begins with a circus-like “show within a show,” but ends with Borges essentially regaining full consciousness in his own life, tearfully embracing and kissing his wife and son, as if he’d believed them forever lost. (If you’re thinking I should have included spoiler alerts within this attempt at synopsis, I would argue that Lecture is a highly expressionistic show, not one with a conventional arc, so the usual rules simply don’t apply.)

Plus, something I haven’t even mentioned yet is the show’s original music, composed by music director (and U-M student) Michael Riccinto. Using Borges’ poetry as lyrics, the cast harmonizes a cappella—in haunting, otherworldly tones—throughout the two hour show, adding yet another means of temporary transport from the familiar.

Which is, when you get down to it, the show’s raison d’être. Lecture is fanciful and strange, and it doesn’t have a dramatic question driving it forward, so it definitely won’t be every theatergoer’s cup of tea. (I’m not so sure it’s mine, if I’m being honest.) What it does have is an all-in, charismatic charm machine of a performer at its center (Powers), and atmospheric tech elements that work gorgeously in concert with each other. Jeff Alder’s textured lighting design paints Nate Doud’s versatile set in darkly cool, dreamy hues; and costume designer Mary Perrin’s work shines brightest when creatively dressing the show’s nonhuman characters (Lengyel’s fly, Routledge’s bird, and the cloaked, whiskered creatures in the second act, to name just three examples).

Like Borges’ dream-formed son in the play’s first act, you, too, will feel like you’re wandering through a maze while attending this Lecture. How much will you appreciate and value that sensation? Your mileage, most assuredly, may vary.

Jenn McKee is a former staff arts reporter for The Ann Arbor News, where she primarily covered theater and film events, and also wrote general features and occasional articles on books and music.  

"Jorge Luis Borges Gives a Lecture on Anatomy" runs through June 29 at Theatre NOVA, 410 West Huron Street, Ann Arbor. Visit theatrenova.org for tickets, showtimes, and more info.