What are you supposed to say about a play that bored you to tears but isn't exactly bad? This was the question we were mulling over last night after seeing Kevin Kling's How? How? Why? Why? Why? at the Seattle Rep.

Kling is best known as an NPR contributor, which explains the audience's lustful appreciation of the show; How? How? Why? Why? Why? is basically an amalgam of This American Life and Prairie Home Companion, complete with down-home musical accompaniment by the talented Simone Perrin, mostly on the accordion.

We didn't like it, but who are we to say? The house was packed and the audience ecstatic. So if you're one of those people who loves This American Life and the work of Garrison Keillor, by all means: Go see How? How? Why? Why? Why? (thru 4/19, tickets here).

Several years ago, Kling--who was born with a defective left arm--was in a motorcycle accident that left him in pain and with a new round of disabilities to deal with. This show is the result: an attempt, by the artist, to express both the pain and loss and fear, as well as the hope to survive. And yes, the fact that we found that a bit schmaltzy may make us bitter, cynical people.

For a little over an hour, Kling takes to the stage to tell amusing anecdotes in that sweetly comic Minnesotan accent of his about people in the small town where he grew up, with gentle pokes at the lack of culture, and nary a dirty word is spoken. The flow and timing of such narratives clearly suggests the sort of public radio storytelling we all know so well. Such anecdotes are sprinkled in between the far less comic and polished admissions of fear and anger and frustration that accompanied the recovery process from his motorcycle accident, all neatly vignetted by Perrin's wispy voice and occasionally comic renditions of popular songs (such as "These Boots Are Made for Walking").

Still, the entire show had a sort of incomplete sense about it; sometimes it feels like the scenes weren't well enough rehearsed, while other times you have to struggle to grasp the entire picture. Kling seems to be trying to express a semi-spiritual experience of darkness, and the flirtation with becoming a loathsome (and perhaps self-loathing) person thanks to a malicious twist of fate. But his story ends with a beaming moment of human triumph and an "aw, shucks" sort of one-liner.

Kevin Kling and Simone Perrin in the world premiere of "How? How? Why? Why? Why?" by Kevin Kling, directed by David Esbjornson. Photo: Chris Bennion