The Hollow Lands

LANDS SAKES Hayashi, right, gets imperialist.

Though the phrase Manifest Destiny, used to define the almost divine mandate claimed by the United States to expand westward across the continent, wasn’t co-opted by American politicians until the 1840s, its impulse was on display much earlier. Or at least it is in Korder’s sharp and expansive picaresque tale, which begins in knockabout New York City in 1815. Focused through the travels of a young Irish immigrant, Jim, the play is propelled by that idealist compulsion to go “where nothing has yet to happen.” Jim progresses through rugged frontier town St. Louis to the deserts and desolate salt flats of the far West. He’s catalyzed by Hayes (expertly embodied by Yosh Hayashi), a poetic and louche frontiersman who fancies himself a 19th-century discoverer like the conquistadors of yore.

This formidable script gets its first production since its premiere at the South Coast Repertory in 2000; Berry’s vigorous staging works hard to contain, not confine, the sprawling work, which spans 40 years and thousands of miles. But the play ultimately feels like it’s illustrating a concept rather than really wrestling with existential questions. Jeremy Fisher ably captures Jim’s shift from awkward immigrant boy to grave, haunted man, but any more profound, soul-level propulsion for Jim’s journey is eclipsed by the scope of the journey itself.

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