In the last section, called "Resolution and Emergence," we are left with this image: a Christmas tree blinking its lights behind a screen onto which enormous slides of statues are projected.

An actor, small in comparison to the projections, matches the statue's poses while a photographer snaps pictures. Three other actors sit on a platform, stage left, speaking in broken sentences about the day and the weather and the sun and the sky.

Even if we occasionally wonder if some of the scenes were created around what Tan found in the American Repertory Theater prop room, we are often startled by their power.

Watching Straightlines is similar to visiting a contemporary art gallery where the images simply come to us. But when the images fail, we are left with little else in the piece.

The show is two hours of image after image. It is certainly too long for the traditionalist, who will be frustrated by non sequitur scenes that are not held together by even a thread of continuity, much less the development of plot or characters.

But with a different set of expectations and a little patience, Straightlines is an enjoyably different and sometimes extremely creative performance. The purpose of art, is has been said, is to disturb, not reassure. Tan will not reassure us with convention. This is not a "regular play," and if the playwright leaves us shifting in our seats and glancing at one another, maybe it is we who should readjust.