Content Warning: This article contains spoilers for Albion College’s production of “The Aliens.”
Aliens. A word that carries so many connotations and ideologies. Whether it’s aliens that vogue or others that can rip your face off, I’m willing to bet most people have some sort of picture that comes to mind when they hear the word.
I don’t typically think of how aliens can refer to the “others” on the outskirts of society – but that’s exactly the premise of Annie Baker’s “The Aliens.”
On Sunday, I went to see Albion College’s production of this show, the first production of the 2025-26 season.
Initial Thoughts, Reactions and Relations
“The Aliens” tells the story of Jasper, played by Dallas senior Alexander Christian, and KJ, played by Coldwater sophomore Jeffrey Harvey. Both characters are men in their thirties who have led complicated lives up to this point. Although their personalities are on opposite ends of the optimism-pessimism spectrum, as an audience member, I could tell there was some found-brotherhood between them.
“It’s a show about real life,” Christian said in an interview after the play. “There’s not a lot of glitz and glamour.
Both Harvey and Christian do a phenomenal job at portraying these characters and bringing their flaws and twisted fates to life.
“One of the hardest parts was getting into that frame of mind,” Harvey said in an interview after the play. “You can respect the writing, you can understand the show, but KJ isn’t one to be glorified, he’s not a protagonist in the normal sense.”
Now, when I first walked into the Black Box Theatre, I was expecting to see some variation of new life coming down to planet Earth and interacting with humans – or at least something along those lines. What I definitely wasn’t expecting was a performance about somewhat oddballish, yet mundane activities between humans. I mean, the set literally looked like the back alley of one of my summer jobs.
Nevertheless, I can’t say that I was disappointed in what I saw.
Jasper and KJ are two adults who are wading through the murky waters of life in hopes of finding a deeper purpose.
However, while lost in the sea of regret and unfulfilled aspirations, the two meet Evan, a seventeen-year-old boy, played by Woodhaven sophomore Sophia Valchine. Evan reminds me a lot of myself as an hourly employee: just trying to get stuff done without all of the nonsense of the outside world interfering. I prefer to save outside problems for just that, outside my shift.
Sophia Valchine is a member of the Albion Pleiad.
Jasper and KJ, despite Evan’s best efforts to shoo them off the property they’re trespassing on, decide to relay little nuggets of wisdom and anecdotes of their past onto this teenager.
Mind you, Evan was just trying to take the trash out.
Thus, a rather strange and awkward friendship ensues, resulting in a series of events that were not on my bingo card for this play.
So…That Happened
Throughout watching “The Aliens,” I experienced a wide range of emotions for all three characters. On one hand, they were very raw, human and relatable. But on the other hand, I can’t help but feel like there could have been a lot more development between the characters’ relationships. While we grow accustomed to seeing the three of them together, I don’t fully understand where the close-knit bond originates.
Jasper is an aspiring novelist who is currently working on a manuscript for his latest work, though it hardly came as a surprise to me how similar his written work lined up with the events and details we come to find out about his character. He’s the kind of person who clings a lot to his past, something that struck me right from the opening scene, where he’s venting about his former lover.
He holds a lot of passion for all of the little things; they touch him and therefore stake their claim in his novel.
In an interview after the play, Christian touched further on why Jasper’s manuscript holds such significance.
“His book is his life,” Christian said. “It’s the culmination of his relationships and all of those things that you hear him talk about, his partners and what he’s done in the past.”
This, to me, makes him a compelling character. It’s part of the reason why I was floored when he died.
Yes, I understand that this production is meant to be realistic, somewhat unsettling and awkward, but sudden deaths in any sort of media always give me a bad case of the heebie-jeebies. Because sometimes it’s like, what was it all for? The struggle, the hardship, just for a premature death? It seems unfair.
This production calls for a lot of attention to the unnerving, lesser-depicted aspects of human life, and the lack of glorification of it brings me back down to earth. Neither Jasper nor KJ is any sort of glamorous, and their past decisions are even less so.
“It’s a very human show, and it’s about those people that we’ve left behind,” Harvey said.
“The people who we don’t think about, who have ended up at a destination and have stayed there for all this time.”
KJ talks about the times he’s cheated on partners in his younger years and his current regrets, but didn’t take much action on them then. Which is very uncomfortable to watch, but you can’t necessarily hate him for it, nor can you commend him for it. It’s that weird state of limbo that seems to grow larger and larger as you age.
But with these characters, the falling Jasper, the lost KJ and bumbling, still learning Evan – I can’t help but crave further interaction. The characters have a story to tell, and while some of it is easily done, it’s much harder to interpret it all between the long silences and stretches of conversation that don’t quite make sense the first time you watch.
It’s a pet-peeve of mine when this happens. I love understanding things the very first time they’re shown to me, and I can’t help but think that I didn’t get that sense of satisfaction this time around.
Unfortunately, “The Aliens” Wasn’t My Cup of Tea
This production, although incredibly eye-opening to all the ordinary bits and people in life who turn out to be not so ordinary, was just not my favorite.
While every actor was amazing at their role and the message that they were trying to convey, Annie Baker’s way of writing and getting the point across was just not on my radar. I think this would be a better service as a book as opposed to a written performance. There’s a lot of depth and emotion underlying each character, which I feel like you can’t entirely get out of this production.
The play was good, but it wasn’t my favorite – and that’s okay. I enjoyed a lot of the elements employed in the production and the interactions between characters, but the plot points fell a little short for my taste.
However, don’t just take my word for it! I strongly encourage you to catch a glimpse of the trio’s interesting dynamic for yourself, as well as support Albion’s Theatre Department in all of their future works.
Upcoming shows are: Today at 7:30 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.
Leave a Reply