In “Relics and Their Humans,” we learn that Josh Quillen’s father Jerry was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s Disease: “…you will eventually lose all muscle control and then you will die within one and a half to three year,” the neurologist said. ”Do you have any questions?” We are told how Josh’s father and Josh’s mother handled what followed; much of the story sad, some of it surprising, parts even amusing.

But there are so many clues that the hour-long piece is supposed to resonate beyond just the engaging  story of Jerry’s disease and its aftermath that I left the theater wondering: What am I missing?

Josh Quillen and Ain Gordon — his collaborator, co-star and director – complicate the narrative from the get-go.  Josh tells us that his Dad made a playlist of 17 tracks – “I’m not going to tell you why my dad made the playlist, not yet” – and that he will produce “some version of all 17 tracks” throughout the hour. 

This track list is one of the “relics” of the intriguing title. Another is the recording of a podcast that Josh and Ain conducted with Josh’s mother Sue. Ain tells us that he is going to portray Sue in a re-creation of this podcast – and so he does, but not until after he’s told us about the really terrific Reuben sandwich that Sue made; created with such care that she “delivered her special Reuben’s direct from an electric skillet plugged in for a final browning, by the dining table, though the kitchen was as close to that table as Josh is to me now.” It’s possible the sandwich counts as one of the relics, or perhaps the skillet in which it was perfected, or surely the other appliances, furniture and knick-knacks that Ain describes briefly, and that we glimpse in projected homey backdrop. 

 In any case, when Sue (Ain) starts telling us in the podcast about Jerry and the disease, there are two definitive relics referenced: Sue’s datebook from the time, and Jerry’s journal “in which he began tracking the arc of his disease.” This included the sentence “I’ve got a little drag in my foot” – the first sign that something was wrong, before his official diagnosis.

“I’ve got a little drag in my foot” is the title, and entire lyrics, of one of the tracks, sung by Quillen and Gordon, joined by two “guest singers” Daniel Matei and Jess Ong.

I told you I left La MaMa wondering: What am I missing? This is true. There are layers of storytelling here, and some unconventional stagecraft, that one might feel as distancing us from the central story.

But since then, I haven’t stopped thinking about one of the stories about Jerry, related shortly after that “little drag in my foot” song. Josh spotted Jerry doing  donuts with his electric wheelchair in the middle of the busiest avenue in the town, laughing hysterically, though at this point his laughter had become little more than a wheeze. It turns out he wasn’t joyriding; he hadn’t lost his mind. He had lost control of his arm, which had pushed against the navigation device on the wheelchair, so it was stuck in a constant right turn. When Josh went up to him, Jerry was laughing at his predicament. “He just looked up at me with these eyes like, ‘what are you going to do?’” 

I’m not sure I understand the title any better — I don’t know whether the wheelchair is supposed to be one of the relics — but both the officially inanimate object and the once animate human being in that story have stayed with me.

Relics and Their Humans
La MaMa through June 30
Running time: 60 minutes
Tickets: $30
Written and performed by Ain Gordon and Josh Quillen 
Dramaturg Talvin Wilks, lighting design by Jennifer Tipton, production stage manager Ed Fitzgerald 
guest singers Daniel Matei and Jess On