Loss And Laughter Collide In Abe Koogler's ‘Deep Blue Sound'

Forbes

22-03-2025

Maryann Plunkett and Mia Katigbak in Clubbed Thumb's 'Deep Blue Sound'
'Lately my plays have been about how fragile the world is, and what it feels like when something you love disappears,' says playwright Abe Koogler. That sense of loss—whether it's the vanishing of an orca pod, a failing relationship, or the slow erosion of community—permeates the wise, funny and heartfelt Deep Blue Sound, now playing at The Public Theater's Shiva Theater. Premiering at Clubbed Thumb's Summerworks festival in 2023, the play—largely comprised of intersecting vignettes, with shades of Our Town—follows a small island community navigating both personal and environmental upheaval.
For Koogler, the story is deeply personal. 'I grew up on a small island in the Pacific Northwest, filled with unusual characters and a lot of natural beauty: the water, the woods, the wild animals,' he recalls. 'When we took the ferry boat to Seattle, it would often slow down so as not to disturb the orcas.' While the environmental crisis looms over the play, its characters are equally preoccupied with their own lives. 'They're wondering what their lives mean or have meant,' he says.
Though the script has remained largely unchanged since its debut, the production has evolved. 'Some plays come out pretty much fully formed; this was one of those plays,' Koogler says. But the move to The Public has allowed for a richer visual experience. 'There is more weather now, more presence of the natural world. The world of the play has expanded to fill the larger space, while remaining intimate scene to scene.'
One of the play's most poignant storylines follows Ella, a woman facing a terminal illness and preparing herself for assisted suicide via the Death with Dignity Act. Koogler approached the subject with nuance and restraint. 'Having known people who made use of assisted suicide to end their lives, I know that it's an emotionally complicated time,' he says. 'There can be a lot of happiness, anger, surreal and absurd moments, fear, connection—it's just as complicated as the rest of life.'
Tony Award winner Maryann Plunkett reprises her Obie-winning role as Ella. Koogler calls her 'one of the greats.' 'She is incredibly honest onstage. You never feel like she's acting,' he says. 'She is also so, so funny. And it's incredible to watch how she works on her performance, never settling, always finding new colors and new depths.'
Despite the play's weighty themes, humor remains essential: an ineffective mayor (Crystal Finn) and a mysterious, chainsaw-wielding figure (Ryan King) offering side-splitting moments. 'Plays need to be funny first, before they're anything else,' Koogler insists.
His previous play, Staff Meal, which ran at Playwrights Horizons, explored similar themes of change and uncertainty, centering on characters also grappling with the loss of something they love. 'In Staff Meal that thing was a restaurant; in Deep Blue Sound it's the whales,' he explains. 'The people in my plays feel upset about the way the world is changing: they can see it happening, and they don't know what to do about it. I think everyone can identify with that confusion and sense of loss in our world right now.
'Like all of my plays, it's about lonely people struggling to connect, My characters are always trying to find their place within larger systems—political, economic, ecological—that are operating in ways they cannot understand.'