Empty Ride is a ghost story that kind of wants to be something else. The ghosts have to compete with real estate development, a fraught father/daughter relationship, money troubles, a love story, etc. When the ghosts actually show up, it’s as if they’re trying to jog our memory – yes, you are watching a story about ghosts.
The show is set in Ishinomaki, Japan, in 2016, five years after the tsunami and subsequent nuclear disaster. The town is rebuilding but it’s difficult for residents to move on from the trauma.
Kisa (Michele Selene Ang), who left Japan to study art in Paris, missed the disaster but came home in 2011, briefly, for her mother’s funeral. She comes back, more permanently, in 2016 when her father Isamu (Jojo Gonzalez) starts having serious health problems. He is a cab driver, and she agrees to take over his route while he’s recovering.
As she drives, she encounters a variety of characters, including Sachiko (Jully Lee) and her younger brother Toru (Major Curda). Sachiko grew up in Ishinomaki and has returned to rebuild the town (i.e., make money on real estate). She is evidently facing headwinds, though those barriers are never fully explained.
Toru is a misplaced playboy who is smitten with Kisa. She does not immediately share his affections. The cast rounds out with Alex (David Rosenberg), who plays an American expat and Isamu’s neighbor. It’s a capable cast, and they seem to have developed good chemistry.
As the play proceeds, we learn more about Isamu’s health, his money problems, the ups and downs of being a taxi driver and Toru’s lame attempts to hook up with Kisa. Ghosts come and go, mostly in the guise of strangely opening doors and mysterious music.
Alex is the comic highlight and produces a riveting monologue about his own harrowing experience with ghosts. At the same time, it’s unclear why this character is even in the play, other than to deliver the monologue. He has negligible impact on the story.
This is an ongoing theme with Empty Ride. A lot of information is set out, including what empty ride actually means, but it doesn’t really link to anything. Still, the play’s greatest sin may be its almost complete lack of edge. Other than Alex’s description, the ghosts aren’t particularly spooky, and any lingering relationships between the living and dead are mostly unexplored. The ghosts are there, sure, but they don’t seem to have much skin in the game.
Empty Ride is interesting and sometimes funny, but it can’t seem to make up it’s mind what it wants to be and never really finds its footing.
