Wrecks
Written by Neil LaBute
Directed by Jason Gerace
at Profiles Theatre, 4147 N. Broadway (map)
thru Nov 17 | tickets: $30-$40 | more info
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A meandering monolog in search of a reason to exist
Profiles Theatre presents
Wrecks
Review by Catey Sullivan
The prolific, provocative Neil LaBute makes a misstep in Wrecks, a slight monolog that meanders unremarkably along for about 65 minutes before veering into one of the playwright’s signature dark twists.
The problem is two-fold with Profiles Theatre‘s production: First, there’s no dramatic tension to the monolog until its final moments. The lion’s share of the piece has all the drive – if not the annoyingly unmitigated good cheer – of those mass-holiday newsletters some people insist on issuing each year. Second, when that malevolent swerve does finally emerge, it’s not so much shocking or provocative as it is predictable. As he did in Medea Redux, LaBute revisits Greek tragedy in Wrecks by depicting seemingly average, everyday people as vessels of profoundly troubling secrets and quite possibly sociopathic impulses. Certainly the scarier aberrations of the human heart can be fascinating to examine on stage. But the problem with Wrecks is that right up until the final moments, it seems like a conventional, largely uneventful love story.
What appeal Wrecks does manage to muster emanates from John Judd‘s performance as Edward Carr, a bereaved widow chain-smoking in a funeral parlor anteroom while reliving his troubled childhood and blissful marriage. Directed by Jason Gerace, Judd gives a carefully pitched delivery; slowly, subtly rachetting up Edward’s grieving until it reaches a point of disturbing, wild-eyed intensity. Judd brings a relentless authenticity into everything he does on stage, and Wrecks is no exception. It’s a privilege watching the man work. That said, he doesn’t have much to work with here.
This is one of those shows where divulging anything other than the bare bones of the plot would result in unfair spoilers; suffice it to say that Edward’s all-consuming relationship with his wife, and his children for that matter, isn’t quite what it seems.
At lights up, we meet Edward lighting up Camels and recounting the extraordinary passion he had for his beloved Mary Josephine. LaBute inserts some odd asides into the text, with Edward referring several times to the eulogy he’s apparently delivering in the adjacent room while he indulges in his confessional. It’s a puzzling reference, and one that never makes complete sense. At any rate, his direct address to the audience covers a rocky childhood spent bouncing in and out of foster homes, his single-minded courtship of his beloved JoJo, the rhapsodic, almost religiously significant sex the two shared, and the debilitating pain he’s experiencing at losing her.
Thirty minutes in – about the time Edward starts recounting the vintage car rental business he and his wife built up from scratch – you may well but start wondering what the point of this recitation is. As he talks on, Edward returns to the variations on the assertion that that "to be loved is never wrong," and, indeed, his relationship with Mary Jo seems to be utterly idyllic despite the fact that she was already married when he began to woo her.
But this is LaBute, so you can believe there is significant trouble in the heartland, and Edward’s story culminates in a revelation that brings the widower’s life-guiding maxim into serious question.
You sense that LaBute is aiming at larger themes here, trying to open a can of worms that strategically slither out in the form of profound queries about whether the heart’s true desires can ever be flat-out wrong or whether love itself, if deep and true, can negate crimes against nature. But those fascinating queries don’t rear up until Edward Carr is in the final passages of his monolog. Until then, we’re left with a text that fails to offer a compelling reason for its existence.
Rating: ★★½
Wrecks continues through November 17th at Profiles Theatre, The Alley Stage, 4147 N. Broadway (map), with performances Thursdays and Fridays at 8pm, Saturdays 5pm and 8pm, Sundays 7pm. Tickets are $30-$40, and are available by phone (773-549-1815) or online through PrintTixUSA.com (check for half-price tickets at Goldstar.com). More info at ProfilesTheatre.org. (Running time: 1 hour 10 minutes, NO intermission)
Photos by Michael Brosilow
artists
cast
John Judd (Edward)
behind the scenes
Jason Gerace (director), Eric Broadwater (set design), Mike Durst (lighting design), Jeffrey Levin (sound design, original music), Raquel Adorno (costume design), Jessica Winn (stage manager), Michael Brosilow (photos)
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