Review: A Life Extra Ordinary (The Gift Theatre)

Adept cast, direction makes a 'Life' worth seeing

Review by Catey Sullivan

Playwright Melissa Ross' script isn't doing anyone any favors in the Gift Theatre's world premiere production of of "A Life Extra Ordinary." She sets the drama up as a psychological thriller and a murder mystery, but she never delivers on either premise. Yet for all the considerable flaws in a script that feels more like the muddled first draft of a Very Special After School Special, A Life Less Extraordinary is worth seeing. Director John Gawlik's seven-person cast elevates this mostly mediocre material far higher than it has any business going.

Ross' tone and structure are reminiscent of Alice Sebold's novel "The Lovely Bones," the 2002 bestseller narrated by a young girl who has been murdered and is telling her story from the Great Beyond as she watches over her surviving loved ones. Ross' plot is also narrated by a dead woman watching over her loved ones (not a spoiler. We learn that Annabel is dead in the first scene). The plot also evokes the 2002 murder of Laci Peterson and the 1989 murder of Carol Stuart, both of whom were pregnant when killed by their philandering husbands.

Sunny, compassionate Annabel (Cyd Blakewell) opens the show with the direct address that Ross uses throughout to narrate the proceedings. After showing poignant scenes from her youth, Annabel tells us she is dead, killed when she was eight months pregnant. Like Peterson and Stuart, Annabel made the cover of "People." We see Annabel as a child learning to fish with her dad; Annabel as a teenager, cheerleading for the home team; Annabel as a soon-to-be mom, sorting Christmas decorations with her own mom.

As Annabel hovers on the sidelines, Ross sketches in scenes of Annabel's parents (Lynda Newton, Paul D'Addario), a loving couple trying to come to grips with the unbearable. It's all fairly unremarkable, but it's also fairly compelling, thanks to Gawlik's deft direction and his stellar cast.

As Annabel's mother Grace, Newton nails the impotent rage and bottomless sorrow of a parent trying to cope with the death of an only child. As Annabel's father Tom, D'Addario gives a wrenching, understated performance that shows the immense love Tom feels for his daughter. Blakewell's portrayal catches the unmistakable sadness contained within Annabel's smiles. Annabel isn't extraordinary, and that makes her all the easier to empathize with. She's a kind, good, caring woman who - like most of us - wants nothing more than the love of her family and a safe spot in the universe that she can call her own.

The production's supporting players are rock solid. John Kelly Connollytakes a cliched character - the cop who is gruff-on-the-outside, sensitive-on-the-inside - and gives it depth. As Annabel's lifelong love Sam, Rudy Galvan delivers a performance that's so vulnerable it'll make your heart hurt. And as Polly, a struggling single mom who goes to police with information about the murder, Darci Nalepa takes an egregiously underwritten role gives it the strength of a lioness.

Polly's scenes illustrate one of the fundamental problems with A Life Extra Ordinary . Supposedly, Polly has the crucial bit of evidence that will allow the cops to catch Annabel's killer. But what Polly has to offer (at least what we hear of it ) wouldn't be enough to justify a search warrant, never mind an arrest.

Then there's the eye-rollingly improbable scene between Annabel and a would-be suitor. It's a pivotal scene - if it's not credible, nothing about the rest of the plot is believable either. Before it unfolds, Annabel has been established as a smart, strong, confident young woman who is deeply in love with her long-term boyfriend. Enter Jeff, (Jay Worthington) a random stranger who is nothing less than loathsome.

Every woman on the planet knows Jeff, and Worthington nails the instantly recognizable type. This is the guy who yells at you to smile as you walk by, and who then yells that you're a stuck-up bitch if you don't smile wide enough. He's the guy who slaps a "No Means Yes, Yes Means Anal" bumper sticker on his truck. He's the guy who knows that you want him, and that "fuck off" is really just your way of engaging in foreplay. There's absolutely nothing in the script that indicates Annabel would ever fall for such a cretin - well, nothing except that if she doesn't, the whole story collapses. And so it does, because you won't believe for a second that Annabel would ever go out with Jeff.

In the end, A Life Extra Ordinary never delivers the payoff it promises in the first scene. Beyond the sketchiest of incomplete outlines, we never find out why Annabel was murdered or what drove her murderer to slice her up in the (gratuitously) gruesome fashion we hear about in the final scenes. It's easy to figure out who the culprit is - if you haven't gotten it by intermission your mind is elsewhere. Yes, the killer is an awful person, but capable of cold-blooded carving up a pregnant woman? Not without some extensive rewrites and copious character development.

The final scene platitudes that end the piece don't help. When Annabel describes Heaven, it feels like she's reciting outtake captions from a Precious Moments cartoon. As endings go, it's a cheap, manipulative cop-out, much like putting a picture of puppies and rainbows on the last page of a book of gruesome crime scene photos.

Would that this mighty cast had a true psychological thriller/murder mystery on their hands. They'd absolutely kill it.

A Life Extra Ordinary continues through November 20th at The Gift Theatre, 4802 N. Milwaukee (map), with performances Thursdays-Saturdays at 7:30pm, Sundays 2:30pm. Tickets are $35, and are available by phone (773-283-7071) or online through Vendini.com (check for half-price tickets at Goldstar.com ). More information at TheGiftTheatre.org. (Running time: 2 hours 45 minutes, includes an intermission)

behind the scenes

Tags: 16-1010, Alarie Hammock, Alice Sebold, Catey Sullivan, Chicago Theater, Christopher Kriz, Claire Demos, Cyd Blakewell, Daniel Friedman, Darci Nalepa, Jay Worthington, John Gawlik, John Kelly Connolly, Lynda newton, Melissa Ross, Paul DAddario, post, Rudy Galvan, Sarah JHP Watkins, The Gift Theatre

Category: 2016 Reviews, Catey Sullivan, Gift Theatre, New Work, World Premier