Playwright Jordan Hall opens Kayak with a woman floating down a river. Annie Iverson is afraid, unable to navigate her boat properly or use a GPS to figure out where she is. So, instead, she stacks a s’more (her only food) and begins to share her woes.

She’s got a lot to complain about, but mostly she’s concerned about her son and his relationship with this “awful” girlfriend who goes around the world trying to save the environment and leads “dangerous” rallies and gives loud and angry speeches. Why, she wonders, can’t her son find a nice girl who will one day give her grandchildren?

Theatre NOVA’s production of Kayak seems to have chosen just the right play to perform at just the right moment. Events in American cities and around the world are making people wonder what their obligations are in troubled times.

Annie Iverson cares deeply about her only child. She and her husband (never shown) have it all planned out. Her son Peter will graduate with a business degree, work his way up in finance, and marry that woman who will give her grandchildren.

Peter meets Julie Daniels, a firebrand, a rabble rouser, a young woman dedicated to saving the environment. Peter is ready to switch his major to ecology issues and is even encouraging Julie to go out and spread the news at meetings around the world.

Kayak is part comedy, part character studies, and part summary of where we are, using the environmental issue as a point of reference.

The play essentially takes place in Annie’s mind as she ponders how Julie walked into their lives and “ruined everything.” As Annie tells it, she conjures up two Julies. One is the activist her son admires, but she’s also a version of Julie that is mean, dangerous, and a dark siren who has destroyed her family.

Director Brianna O’Neal creates this river on dry land and depends on the audience to join Annie and believe that a very real kayak is floating down a river. O’Neal and the cast get the tension that Hall intended, and the tight space of the Theatre NOVA stage creates a special intimacy as Annie tells her story, her imaginary story, and several different versions of Noah and his ark.

Diane Hill is a seasoned actor. As Annie, she gets to play an especially complex character. She’s kind, understanding, a good mother except when no one’s around, and she lets us know what she really thinks. Hill delivers these snips with perfect timing and facial expressions that draw us into her claustrophobic kayak. She makes these subtle moves from character to character, from outrage to concern.

Cooper Miller plays Peter, the one in the middle. He respects his mother but he’s a man and he’s in love. Peter is not unaware that his girlfriend will always have other things to do, but he also knows that it might not be such a bad idea. Miller captures the twisting and turning of having to please his mother and win over his girlfriend. He’s caught, and Miller goes from tears to cheerleader to conviction.

Grace Lawrence plays two Julies. She is the world traveler, the activist for a cleaner world, and a strong, self-sufficient woman, who is also attracted to Peter. Julie is also Annie's nemesis, an evil, nasty person (at least in Annie’s mind). Lawrence finds those different views of Julie and brings them to life. Maybe, the character has a third side, she wants two things at once, Peter and her calling. Lawrence makes the tension very real.

Hall has created a tight fantasy that tries to sum up the different voices that argue endlessly but rarely change anything. We know these characters because we’re also those characters trying to understand the constant confrontations and disruptions in our lives.

Briana O’Neal has her own take on the play:

My hope for this show is that it inspires you to ask what we can all do to make the world a little better. What we do makes a difference. We can say enough is enough: it’s time to create a better future. After all, is it not the greatest act of humanity to stand together and demand better?

Recent events confirm that’s a good first step.

Hugh Gallagher has written theater and film reviews over a 40-year newspaper career and was most recently the managing editor of the Observer & Eccentric Newspapers in suburban Detroit.   

Jordan Hall’s "Kayak" will continue through February 22 on Fridays at 8 pm, Saturdays at 3 pm and 8 pm, and Sundays at 2 pm at Theatre NOVA, 410 West Huron Street, Ann Arbor. For tickets, call 734-635-8450 or visit theatrenova.org.