If you're the sort of theatergoer who lives for the umpteen-thousandth revival of The Odd Couple, then I recommend you let The Floating World at Pacific Lutheran University float on by. While there's nothing wrong with escapist entertainment, director Brian Desmond and his talented cast have swung for the fences. It's a profoundly ambitious night of theater that lasts almost three hours and passes through every emotion from lust to rage to ennui.

I was promised an evening of one-acts. What I got was two Thornton Wilder playlets followed by a 90-minute tragicomedy by Paula Vogel (How I Learned to Drive). In his notes, Desmond explains the program by quoting Vogel: "I want us to emulate Mr. Wilder's great gift to American theatre in presentational, rather than representational, style." What she means is that her plays must be produced as Wilder's were, symbolically, non-literally, in direct address to the audience. To this stipulation she adds a layer of Eastern-inspired stagecraft that would tax a professional company, let alone the drama department of a small college.

First, the Wilder pieces. The Happy Journey to Trenton and Camden, from 1931, is the story of a family‘s road trip to visit a daughter in New Jersey. Desmond dares to take on the theater of silence. As each member of the family regards the passing scenery and thinks his or her own thoughts, we understand their silences represent any number of emotions. These protracted silences are difficult for audiences unaccustomed to what radio calls "dead air," but allow for a complexity of subtext that is a tribute to Desmond and his cast. Julia Stockton is especially noteworthy here for her effective recreation of a principled mother and wife of the 1930s.

The Wreck on the Five-Twenty-Five finds Wilder in 1956, contemplating the emptiness that lurks at the core of one workingman's American dream. From the pleasant silences of a mother-daughter knitting session, we plunge into the chill of elemental fear. A strong argument could be made for cutting this play from the program, but only to shorten the night for conventional audiences. The piece itself is well-produced.

There are silences in the Vogel play, The Long Christmas Ride Home, as well, but so much astonishing stagecraft pervades them that we scarcely notice. What we cannot fail to notice is a multiplicity of endings not seen since The Return of the King. That said, Desmond and his cast aspire to poetry and achieve it. Not only do the actors double as adult characters lost in family history and poor choices, but they puppeteer Bunraku rod puppet versions of their characters' child selves. Meanwhile, actors from the Wilder pieces accompany them on Japanese teahouse-style instruments. The effect is eerie, funny, lovely and heartbreaking; and for audience members ready to accept a challenge (including some very adult content inconceivable to Wilder), it's an absolute must-see. If this isn't one of the most rewarding shows I see all year, in fact, I'll be incredibly surprised and delighted.

The Floating World
Through March 20, $5–$8, Thursday–Saturday 7:30 p.m., Sunday 2 p.m., Pacific Lutheran University,12180 Park Ave. S., Tacoma, 253.535.7150