Darlin’
Written by Joshua Rollins
Directed by Ilesa Duncan
at Athenaeum Theatre, 2936 N. Southport (map)
thru April 13 | tickets: $25-$30 | more info
Check for half-price tickets
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A solid staging of a problematic play
Step Up Productions presents
Darlin’
Review by Lawrence Bommer
Joshua Rollins’ world premiere is troubled by more than its subject – domestic violence. Like an overweight cargo plane, this problematic new work takes forever to get off the ground, then conveniently crashes so that little remains resolved. It’s ultimately a cautionary tale: Clem, a sad wife with a fairly decent husband, suffers post partum and other depressions, possibly based on the bad boyfriends she had before. (Anyway, you
Persuasively premiered by Step Up Productions in a solid staging by the reliable Ilesa Duncan, Darlin’ amounts to a series of desultory, enervating encounters in Clem’s hideout, a dead-end motel. By process of elimination, Clem discovers that other women have it worse. This, of course, is not exactly late-breaking news or a theatrical Amber Alert. But it does give seven actors a chance to prove their stuff.
As the hard-drinking, mostly morose Clem, Elizabeth Birnkrant is hard pressed to give her withdrawn wife any more presence than the plot does (which mostly has her saying strange stuff, considering the scary situations she encounters). Surrounding this unexplained runaway with no credit cards in an unnamed motel off of 1-80 in Iowa are Todd Michael Kiech’s multitasking motel manager, an affable slacker/drug dealer (Jake Carr) who gives her a gun (always a mistake), and her randy fellow resident–with benefits–a conference manager named Troy (Robert Hardaway).
Clem, who doesn’t know what she wants except that she sort of hopes to be hurt so she can finally feel something, draws closest in sisterly solidarity to the battered housekeeper Dee. Weighed down with woe, Dee never cleans a thing (Elizabeth Antonucci, self-destructing throughout) because, lumbered by life, she’s cursed with an abusive boyfriend Hank (a nasty John Wehrman) who deserves everything he gets. Finally, there’s Clem’s aggrieved and abandoned husband Jake (grounded Bradford R. Lund). Automatically sympathetic, Jake wants her back for the sake of the kids if not her own. Under the circumstances, it’s not too much to ask.
Rollins knows how to create quirky and recognizable characters but not how to give credibility to their aimless comings and goings. (The first act with its hit-and-run episodes lacks even a hint of momentum, let alone urgency, while the second act is, intentionally or not, unable to clean up its mess.) This hurts most with Clem, a runaway whose plight is presented with entirely too much coy evasiveness to register by the end. But Dee, alas, is the real thing. (Partial proceeds from the box office will go to The House of Good Shepherd charity.)
Rating: ★★
Darlin’ continues through April 13th at Athenaeum Theatre, 2936 N. Southport (map), with performances Thursdays-Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays 2pm. Tickets are $25-$30, and are available by phone (773-935-6875) or online through their website (check for half-price tickets at Goldstar.com). More information at StepUpProductions.org. (Running time: 2 hours 10 minutes, includes an intermission)
Photos by Liz Lauren
artists
cast
Elizabeth Antonucci (Dee), Elizabeth Birnkrant (Clem), Jake Carr (Kenny), Robert Hardaway (Troy), Todd Michael Kiech (Smith), Bradford Lund (Jake), Annie Neal (Dee, March 28 – 30), John Wehrman (Hank).
behind the scenes
Ilesa Duncan (director), Robert Groth and Jenniffer Thusing (set design), Raquel Adorno (costume design), Mike Durst (lighting design), Joe Court (sound design), Lisa Griebel (props design), Dorthea Walstrom (makeup design), Brandy Reichenberger (dramaturg), Marc Mixon (technical director), Catherine Allen (production manager), Shandee Vaughan (stage manager), Liz Lauren (photos)
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