An award-winning playwright, Abe Koogler, has poured his memories of growing up on Vashon into a lyrical new play now being staged at one of New York City’s most prestigious venues, The Public Theater, in a limited run that closes on April 5.

The play, “Deep Blue Sound,” begins as all its characters — in an overlapping rush of dialogue — directly address the audience to introduce themselves and explain an aching mystery they are collectively trying to solve: a pod of orcas that has long visited the waters surrounding their Pacific Northwest island has now vanished.

As the play unfolds, with both humor and aching sadness, it reveals more personal losses experienced by these townfolk — of their health, relationships, peace of mind and sense of belonging in their small community.

Critics, in largely rhapsodic reviews, have compared “Deep Blue Sound” to an American classic.

“The ghost of Thornton Wilder surely perched on Koogler’s shoulder during the composition,” wrote David Cote, in the Observer, saying the “superbly focused and balanced production inevitably brings to mind ‘Our Town,’ but with ecological dread and greater social anomie.”

David Barbour, in Lighting and Sound America, said that Koogler had created “a pointillist community portrait … you don’t watch ‘Deep Blue Sound’ so much as you eavesdrop on it. And yet, by evening’s end, you know everything about these singular, eccentric, often lonely, islanders.”

Almost everything, that is — because the island where the action takes place remains unnamed in the play.

But it would be an almost instantly recognizable world to anyone who lives on Vashon.

One character is the editor of a weekly newspaper called The Beachcomber. Another is the town’s pushy unofficial mayor, elected by popular vote on an animal welfare platform during the island’s annual Strawberry Festival. Yet another is a chainsaw-wielding hitchhiker named Gary, inspired by Gary Lynn, an islander now immortalized in a roadside chainsaw sculpture placed at the site of his death, in 1998, on Vashon Highway.

The name of the town’s grocery store, and the place where all the characters bump into each other? Thriftway.

Koogler, in a series of emails, tipped The (real) Beachcomber that the play was set on Vashon, recounting how he moved to the island with his family in 1987, when he was three years old, and lived here until he went to college in 2002. He came home to visit often, until his parents moved to New Mexico in the early 2010s, he said.

He said he no longer has close ties to the island, but then again, he’s been busy: a graduate of the Julliard School Playwriting Fellowship, he received an Obie Award for his 2018 off-Broadway play, “Fulfillment Center.” That year, he also received the Dramatists Guild’s Lanford Wilson Award. His most recent other works, “Kill Floor” and “Staff Meal,” have also won critical acclaim in New York productions.

Koogler’s “Deep Blue Sound” was first produced in 2023 by the noted downtown theater company, Clubbed Thumb. That production’s cast included Tony and Obie Award winning actress Maryann Plunkett in the moving role of Ella, a 60-year old islander who has somehow kept her friends from learning that she is dying of cancer. Plunkett reprises the role in the Public Theater production with a performance that has again has been praised by critics.

The play also had its Northwest premiere at Bellingham TheatreWorks in January and February of this year. Still, Koogler said he did not know if any current or former islanders, outside of his friends and family, have seen the show.

“If there are any islanders or former islanders in NYC, I hope they come see the play before it closes on April 5,” he said. “I would be honored to have them and I hope they feel that it’s at least somewhat accurate to their experience of Vashon, although I’ve certainly taken certain artistic liberties.”

Kooger shared his indelible memories of Vashon in response to the question: what inspired you to write about this place so well, so long after leaving?

“I spent almost my entire childhood on Vashon,” he wrote, recounting that his first theater memory was of seeing members of the UMO Ensemble hang from trapezes at the Blue Heron — a performance his parents took him to as a young child. He also acted in plays at the Blue Heron, and recalled how his teacher “treated us like artists — with rigor and expectations — even though we were kids.”

His childhood memories evoked experiences and sensations familiar to those who live on Vashon now.

“I remember listening in on a lot of great gossip, and knowing a lot about people’s private lives as well as their public ones,” he wrote. “I remember how wild and dark the forest was. Coming back from the city at night and standing on the deck of the ferry watching the island get closer. The beauty of the island in summer when everything is in bloom. The big puppets at Islewilde, the Thriftway shopping cart drill team, the smell of the wood fire at Pirate Camp, and Sandy’s raspy voice saying hello when I walked into the Burton store to buy a soda — there are so many specific details of growing up on Vashon that I will probably have to write several more plays just to get them all in there.”

Movingly, he also recounted his and his family’s deep and lasting friendship with Mary Robinson, a beloved local artist, organic farmer, teacher, mentor, activist, and world traveler who died in 2022. “Deep Blue Sound” is dedicated to her memory.

“I remember the island as a place where people were trying their best to live ethical lives and do good in the world,” he said. “Mary Robinson had a bumper sticker on her car that said ‘subvert the dominant paradigm.’ Once I figured out what that bumper sticker meant, I realized that it summed up quite well the philosophy of many islanders. Subvert the dominant paradigm, stay creative, and take care of your community.”

Visit tinyurl.com/yckf4995 to read more about The Public Theater’s production of “Deep Blue Sound.” Visit abekoogler.com to find out more and read reviews. Purchase the play at tinyurl.com/yc3erv6r.

Miriam Silverman (left) and Arnie Burton in “Deep Blue Sound.” (Maria Baranova photo)

Abe Koogler (Courtesy photo)