Ever arrived at the airport on the wrong day? For the wrong flight?
Then you might sympathise with Michael, the protagonist of Don DeLillo's 1999 play Valparaiso, who discovers at the check-in desk that although his ticket says Valparaiso, Chicago, his itinerary says Valparaiso, Miami.
What was supposed to be a simple business trip turns into a geographical nightmare, with Michael eventually pitching up in Valparaiso, Chile.
His adventure turns him into something of a local celebrity.
Correspondingly, the play presents his experiences entirely through the media, with Michael conducting countless interviews with journalists and documentary makers, culminating in a final - fatal - appearance on a Jerry Springer-style chat show.
Don DeLillo is fascinated with the vampiric impulses of the media, which gradually claim complete ownership of Michael (Stephen Chance) in tandem with his own psychological journey toward existential breakdown.
Michael's relationship with his wife Livia is dissipated and distant as he relinquishes his own narrative to the control of hard-nosed TV presenters.
For DeLillo, the media and its obsession with explicit literalism and banal celebrity is not so much an increasingly dangerous, all-commanding power but the perfect metaphor for the precarious emptiness of human identity.
Still, although Jack McNamara's well-acted production boldly gets stuck in, it comes a cropper with DeLillo's convoluted plotting, fantastical devices and the increasingly dense dialogue.
Interesting, but more a DeLillo curio than essential viewing.
Valparaiso
