Chapatti
Written by Christian O’Reilly
Directed by BJ Jones
North Shore Center for the Arts, Skokie (map)
thru April 19 | tickets: $25-$75 | more info
Check for half-price tickets
Read review
Coming to terms with life in a heartfelt, wondrous way
Northlight Theatre and Galway Arts Festival present
Chapatti
Review by Catey Sullivan
Cat people and dog people – they’re two distinct, irreconcilable types who tend to reciprocally look down on each other. But in Irish playwright Christian O’Reilly‘s poignant, funny and surprising Chapatti, mutts and felines pave the way for an unlikely common ground between pet owners. Directed by BJ Jones and starring Penny Slusher and John Mahoney, Chapatti is a also a showcase for two of Chicago’s finest actors.
It’s one of those plays that sound utterly, tiresomely predictable when the plot points are laid out: Dan (Mahoney) and Betty (Slusher) meet at the vet’s office. He’s there out of loneliness; his dog Chapatti (named for an Indian dish Dan loves) isn’t ailing so much as Dan has nowhere else to go and desperately needs something – anything – to give his days purpose. Unable to get over the loss of the only woman he ever loved, he’s is dangerously depressed and unnervingly close to delusional in his obsessive, all-consuming desire to be reunited with his beloved.
Meanwhile, Betty – a caretaker for a demanding, often cruel elderly invalid – has a box of kittens that need tending to. She’s also something of a loose cannon, unable to properly contain her infectious laughter and willing to embark on a potentially tragic scheme in order to shake Dan out of the emotional mire he feels obligated to drown in.
From their first encounter, you expect romance to follow Dan and Betty, with the prickly, sardonic dog lover eventually being won over by the warm-hearted cat fancier. And so it does, but in a manner most unexpected.
O’Reilly’s dialog isn’t the fluffy, gentle stuff of by-the-numbers rom-coms. It’s barbed, edgy and often mordant. This is a love story that comes hand-in-glove with tragedy, both the tragedy of having loved and lost and that of never having loved at all. There is also a hilariously dead cat involved. O’Reilly leaves it to lesser imaginations to pen love stories wherein the lovers bond before crackling fires or tropical sunsets. Dan and Betty forge their first tentative connection by digging up and then bathing a tabby that’s been crushed to death by a car and summarily buried.
With a narrative that gracefully moves from direct address to conventional dialog in a production that alternates between stylized and realism, Chapatti is a mix of charm and intensity. Mahoney and Shlusher create characters that are complex and tremendously appealing. Slusher’s delivery of a monolog describing Betty’s difficult marriage is heartbreaking; Mahoney has a gravesite scene that is at once shocking, wrenching and enraging. Together, they have chemistry to burn – watch for the scene wherein Betty dons a figure-hugging, candy-apple red dress: She’s incandescent. Both Betty and Dan go through an emotional wringer over the course of Chapatti.
Watching them hurt, heal and ultimately come to terms with their lives and each other is truly a rich, wonderful experience.
Rating: ★★★★
Chapatti continues through April 19th at North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, 9501 Skokie Blvd., Skokie (map), with performances Wednesdays at 1:30pm and 7:30pm, Thursdays-Fridays 7:30pm, Saturdays 2:30pm/8pm, Sundays 2:00pm/7:00pm. Tickets are $25-$75, and are available by phone (847-673-6300) or online through their website (check for half-price tickets at Goldstar.com). More info at Northlight.org. (Running time: 90 minutes, no intermission)
Photos by Michael Brosilow
artists
cast
John Mahoney (Dan), Penny Slusher (Betty)
behind the scenes
BJ Jones (director), Jack Magaw (set design), Rachel Laritz (costume design), JR Lederle (lighting design), Denis Clohessy (composer, sound design), Sarah Burnham (props design), Amanda Hermann (assistant props), Brigid Duffy (dialect coach), Laura D. Glenn (stage manager), Timothy J. Evans (executive director), Michael Brosilow (photos)
14-0337
