Devil May Care
Written by Kendall Sherwood
Directed by Laurie Jones
Flat Iron Arts Building, 1570 N. Milwaukee (map)
thru March 17 | tickets: $15 | more info
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Laying bare the soul’s motivations
Wishbone Theatre Collective presents
Devil May Care
Review by K.D. Hopkins
Devil May Care is a play that features the American South. In the tradition of Tennessee Williams and Carson McCullers, the region is a character lending a fecund air of hidden history and simmering resentments to the action. As a premiere work from playwright Kendall Sherwood, she has done an exemplary job in capturing the voice of the South.
The town and region is in the grip of a seven year drought. The people are as dead and empty as the river where Jacob dreams of leading a triumphant altar call and mass baptism. Smolarek’s Abigail is completely beat down and has the stare of a prisoner of war who has been tortured. It is a brilliant performance. She is totally absorbed with the character’s pain. Every movement seems to be as if she is being subtly stung by needles. Her eyes are haunted with a psychotic edge waiting to explode. Her performance is the perfect balance of rage, disappointment, and desperation.
John Mark Sawyer gives a compelling and luminous performance as a desperate man of God. His sermons have fallen on deaf ears and there have been no baptisms for the length of his tenure at the church. Jacob is a product of the foster care system who was saved by a minister who caught him in a youthful indiscretion with spray paint. He scarred his hands scrubbing the brick of that church and compares them to the stigmata of Jesus. Sawyer’s preacher is a subtle mirroring of Joel Osteen. He has the smile and charm like Osteen. There is either genius or seminary experience in how he delivers the salvation promises to Abigail. Jacob believes in what he is preaching and is appalled by the divisiveness, condescension, and lurid abuse done in the name of God. He feels that his arson is comparable to Jesus clearing the temple of the money changers.
Abigail and Jacob meet in the night after Jacob has presided over her abusive mother’s funeral. So deep is the abuse legacy of her mother that one knows the daughter exists . Abigail is there to kill herself because she never got an answer as to why her mother hated her so much. She spent her entire life cowering from her mother’s cold stare and yet took care of the woman when she lay dying of a slow paralysis. There are some wonderful lines in this play especially from Abigail when talking about her mother. She mentions how the hatred is like kudzu which may seem a charming part of the South but in reality it chokes everything in its path.
This is a play of dialog and laying bare the soul’s motivations. It clocks in at two hours but the writing, acting, and direction make the time glide by. The tempo and emotional steam recall Tennessee Williams’ 27 Wagons of Cotton, which was made into the movie “Baby Doll”. Jacob and Abigail are people on a mission that they believe will bring redemption or justice. The South as a character is so familiar to me as a child of the Great Migration. The petty resentments and fundamentalism are real and can be as dangerous as gasoline in a drought. This is really good theater – Devil May Care deserves a full house every night.
Rating: ★★★½
Devil May Care continues through March 17th at Collaboraction Theater, Studio 300, 1579 N. Milwaukee (map), with performances Thursdays-Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 7pm. Tickets are $10-$15, and are available online at brownpapertickets.com (check for half-price tickets at Goldstar.com). More information at wishbonetheatre.org. (Running time: 2 hours 20 minutes, which includes one intermission)