Blazing a new trail through a familiar 'Passage'

The meditative mood of the production, which has been stylishly staged (with a debt to the “empty space” gospel of Peter Brook) by Saheem Ali, is established from the outset. Theatergoers are required to remove their shoes, as if at the entrance of a temple, before proceeding into a room which does indeed suggest a sacred space.

Arnulfo Maldonado’s set is a harmonic marriage of plain wood surfaces and basic geometric shapes, with a raised circle at its center. The performers who occupy this austere environment wear loose, monastic garments (designed by Toni-Leslie James), and they identify themselves to us — amiably, casually — not only by their names but also by where they come from.

The idea of place, as both a physical reality and a state of mind, is central to “Passage,” which does indeed begin with a journey. The destination, in this case, is a land called X, which has been colonized by another nation known as Y.

The alphabet soup of names thickens as we meet characters identified only as Q, F, G and so forth. This may be maddening, but it is also methodical. Chen intends to create as neutral a playing field as possible, before cultural tags are imposed upon people and places by the characters here and, by extension, the audience.

“When I think of Country X, the thinking starts from darkness,” says Q (Andrea Abello), a young citizen of Y who is crossing an unspecified body of water to join her fiancé, R (Yair Ben-Dor). “And by that I mean the same darkness as the blank space in your mind, before a thought forms.”

Much can happen in such darkness, where the individual wrestles with a sense of helpless anonymity. The audience will be asked to close its eyes on occasion; at other times, Amith Chandrashaker’s delicate lighting will plunge into total blackness, most memorably to simulate the disorientation of visiting the fabled, labyrinthine caves of Country X.

Is any of this starting to sound familiar? What if you called country X India and the woman known as Q Miss Quested, and extended the title to become “A Passage to India”? That’s the name of E.M. Forster’s great novel of cultures in collision, which is the source of Chen’s storyline.

G, a sage professor and holy woman portrayed by Lizan Mitchell, acknowledges this derivation about halfway through the show. For those who have read Forster’s novel, she says, “you can let that go.” She continues: “This isn’t his story but our story. And by ours, I mean all of us here in this room, right now.”

Such a universalizing point of view means stripping Forster’s complex characters to their situational essences. Their dialogue is defined largely by their perspectives on one another as citizens of X or Y.

“Question of the evening,” announces H (Purva Bedi), an affluent X-ian, to a small group gathered at her home. “Is it possible to be friends with a country Y citizen?”

That question will be tested most fully by B (K.K. Moggie), a prominent X-born doctor, of rarefied intelligence and sensitivity. (Her equivalent in Forster’s novel is Dr. Aziz.) B and F (Linda Powell), an open-minded teacher from Y, meet in a temple and warily establish a relationship.

When F visits B at her home, their dialogue is annotated by the wise G, who is watching them from the sidelines. (Example: “F’s confused. She doesn’t know if it’s irony or not, and if it’s irony tinged with truth, how far down does the hostility go?”)

Even without such commentary, all encounters here seem to be infused with a parsing self-consciousness. Most of the scenes might be given classroom-study titles, such as “Political correctness: annoyance or necessity?” or “When is praise patronizing, as applied to the Other?”

As you may have inferred, “Passage” sometimes feels more like a therapeutic workshop than a narrative drama. But the cast members — who also include Howard W. Overshown and David Ryan Smith — speak their lines with a care and conviction that gives mooring specificity to instincts — of curiosity, defensiveness, hostility — that many people traditionally experience in strange lands.

It’s in the play’s second part, after B and Q have visited the celebrated caves with disastrous consequences, that Chen’s adherence to Forster’s original plot shows strain. If you haven’t read “A Passage to India,” you will probably be confused; actually, even if you have read it, you will probably feel confused — and a bit irritated.

Nonetheless, Ali confidently modulates the pace throughout. And his production includes two exquisitely theatrical moments — artfully enriched by Mikaal Sulmain’s sound design — that explode the prevailing, contemplative calm.

These jolting reversals of tone are guaranteed to raise your heart rate. They are also crucial reminders that the subjects discussed so abstractly and serenely here can assume a violent, visceral charge. The darkness from which thoughts are formed, it seems, is as dangerous as it is fertile.

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Production Notes:

‘Passage’

Through May 26 at Soho Rep, Manhattan; 866-811-4111, sohorep.org. Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes.

By Christopher Chen; directed by Saheem Ali; sets by Arnulfo Maldonado; costumes by Toni-Leslie James; lighting by Amith Chandrashaker; sound and music by Mikaal Sulmain; props by Ryan Courtney; fight director, J. David Brimmer; production stage manager, Nicole Marconi. Presented by Soho Rep.

Cast: Andrea Abello, Purva Bedi, Yair Ben-Dor, Lizan Mitchell, K.K. Moggie, Howard W. Overshown, Linda Powell and David Ryan Smith.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.