The Great God Pan
Written by Amy Herzog
Directed by Kimberly Senior
at Noyes Cultural Arts Center, Evanston (map)
thru May 11 | tickets: $30-$45 | more info
Check for half-price tickets
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A ton of exposition with little hint of resolution
Next Theatre presents
The Great God Pan
Review by Lawrence Bommer
In a mere 75 minutes, acclaimed playwright Amy Herzog dabbles in a fascinating subject – but, alas, can’t commit to a conclusion. The Great God Pan focuses on Jamie, a 32-year-old New Yorker whose problematic present is caught up in an even more entangling past. A Next Theatre Company regional premiere, Kimberly Senior’s driven staging presents his plight with, considering the content, ironic clarity.
Herzog’s concern, as much as can be gleaned from a truncated tale, lies in the mystery of memory, whether recovered, implanted, falsified or enlightened. Can it be trusted when we often forget what actually happens and remember what doesn’t? Is it a maze without an exit? Can its tampered truths ever set someone free? – There are other questions too, but I forgot them…..
On top of his deteriorating six-year love affair, Jamie’s childhood chum Frank (Matt Hawkins), a gay massage therapist living in Ithaca, now wants Jamie’s help—specifically his testimony—in a criminal case he’s bringing against his unseen dad for sexual child abuse. Thrown in for bad measure, Jamie also discovers that his best friend Frank has done jail time for drug offenses.
Confronted with Frank’s search for proof of paternal cruelty, Jamie’s social-working mom (Jan Radcliff) tries to prod his memory: She tells him how, while she and Jamie’s dad (James Leaming) were fighting over her post-partum depression, they sent him to stay with Frank and his dad. But, again, Jamie can’t remember anything exceptional that happened.
Visiting Polly (Margaret Kusterman), an old friend now suffering dementia in a nursing home, Jamie recalls some things that Polly does not and vice versa. Or they recollect very differently how Polly fell from a vine into the river. But both remember the sinister Elizabeth Barrett Browning children’s poem “The Great God Pan.”
We’re given, in short, a lot of exposition, most of it illustrating how memory shifts shapes and plays game with the past and present. What Herzog refuses to produce, after so many unprocessed revelations, is any hint of a resolution–like whether Jamie saw Frank being raped by his father. We just get Jamie’s desultory remark, “There is a reason for forgetting.” Unfortunately, that applies to this play as well.
Rating: ★★
The Great God Pan continues through May 11th at Noyes Cultural Arts Center, 927 Noyes, Evanston (map), with performances Thursdays at 7:30pm, Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays 2pm. Tickets are $30-$45, and are available by phone (847-475-1875, Ext 2) or online through PrihtTixUSA.com (check for half-price tickets at Goldstar.com). More information at NextTheatre.org. (Running time: 75 minutes, no intermission)
Photos by Michael Brosilow
artists
cast
Brett Schneider (Jamie), Kristina Valada-Viars (Paige), Matt Hawkins (Frank), Janette Kroll, Margaret Kusterman (Polly), James Leaming (Doug), Jan Radcliff (Cathy), Halie Ecker (Joelle), Benjamin Nichols (Barrista)
behind the scenes
Kimberly Senior (director), Courtney O’Neill (set design), Heather Gilbert (lighting design), Christopher Kriz (sound design), Samantha Jones (costume design), Eileen Rozycki (props design), Claire E. Zawa (stage manager), Matt Dominguez (assistant director), Kelsy Durkin (assistant stage manager), Noel Williams (assistant production manager), Michael Brosilow (photos)
14-0417
