Ilana (Tess Lina) and Suresh (Kapil Talwalkar) push each other to the limit. Photo by Michael Lamont.

Rajiv Joseph seems to never fail. The Pulitzer-nominated playwright churns out arguably the most raw and visceral depictions of the human experience seen in the past twenty or so years. With "Animals Out of Paper," however, he departs from using as many powerfully theatrical devices as he has in the past (such as a talking tiger walking through limbo in his acclaimed work "Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo," or his nonlinear portrayal of a steadfast friendship in his most well-known work "Gruesome Playground Injuries") and offers us a straightforward portrayal of an oft-explored theme: loss of artistic inspiration due to personal circumstances.

The result? A production that shows us something that we leave the theater feeling and that we've seen before. While the East West Players at the David Henry Hwang Theater succeed in accumulating a tight, diverse cast and crew, and fully exploiting the multifarious talents of its ensemble, they are unfortunately bogged down by the undercurrent of familiarity that the script possesses.

As with all of Joseph's work, the messages of the story are loud and clear. Ilana (Juilliard alum Tess Lina), a renowned origamist, has fallen into a pit of self-loathing and reclusion after a bitter divorce and a mishap resulting in the loss of a precious dog. She finds herself visited by an obnoxiously optimistic, woefully adorable calculus-teacher-slash-origami-fanatic named Andy (Yale veteran C.S. Lee) who at once reveals his romantic inklings towards her and offers her an opportunity to tutor a superbly talented, albeit misguided, student of his. When Tess reluctantly accepts, her life turns around. She discovers a passion for guiding the boy, Suresh (Kapil Talwalkar, a USC senior making his professional debut), towards fulfillment, and finds herself feeling fulfilled again by her budding relationship with Andy. But things take a turn on a trip to Nagasaki for an origami conference, and Tess is forced to examine whether she thrives off of the clutter of her pain and toil, or whether she wants her life to be as perfectly folded and precise as the very art that she creates.

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Lina and Lee are phenomenally talented, but their classical training and pitch-perfect technique shows through too much in this show. The audience sees big personas in characters of small or beaten-down emotional stasis— Shakespearean-caliber actors playing normal people. But in Talwalkar, we see exactly what we need to see: the heart of the play, and the future that it works toward securing. Talwalkar is a knockout. He brings all the vulnerability and quirkiness of a high school senior on the brink of living in the real world, and he nails it with simultaneous sophistication and juvenile wonder. He is not hampered by the magnanimity of the actors that he shares the stage with. Rather, he feeds off of it, almost appearing to make fun of it in the way that Suresh questions the organization of the studio in which the majority of the play takes place (in one brilliant moment after Suresh spontaneously cleans the studio, Ilana exasperatedly asks "Suresh, where's the fire extinguisher?" to which he casually spits back "Ilana, where's the fire?"). This adds to the enthusiasm with which Suresh's rapid maturity and bravado is experienced when faced with his entire life ahead of him.

Ultimately, one can appreciate what Joseph was trying to do with this play and appreciate the importance he brings to the stage. Director Jennifer Chang (another USC contributor) ingeniously strings colorful and intricate origami structures —created by master origamist Robert Lang— across the stage and out into the house, reminding us of the many ways we can craft ourselves and the time and pain it will take to achieve our peak. She poignantly makes it clear that we need to rid ourselves of all the clutter and baggage that comes with the ups and downs of life and see what can come of a clear heart and mind. But regardless, we still somewhat fail to be inspired or overwhelmed by the possibility that the story wants to convey. It feels as if we know where this play is going from the start. However, the East West Players bring their A-game to the production and tackle it fearlessly, and it's a mere joy just to see the passion and color that infuse their work.

"Animals Out of Paper" is playing through October 5 at the David Henry Hwang Theater at the Union Center for the Arts (120 Judge John Aiso Street, Los Angeles). Tickets are $28-$38. For more information visit EastWestPlayers.org.

Reach Contributor Ryan Brophy here.

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