Review: Joint Attention (Three Cat Productions)

  
  
Joint Attention

Written by Pat Curtis
Directed by Jason Paul Smith 
Berger Park Coach House, 6205 N. Sheridan (map)
thru Nov 16   |  tickets: $25   |  more info
  
Check for half-price tickets 
  
  
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Well-meaning play says more about autism than those affected by it

Three Cat Productions presents

Joint Attention

Review by Jon Olson

A young Oak Park couple awaits the arrival of a team of therapists who will give a diagnosis of their 2-1/2 year-old son’s behavior and cognitive abilities. The boy, Jonathan, is uncommunicative, emotionally volatile and prone to repetitive behavior. The report confirms the couple’s fears that their son has autism. What follows is not just a story of the family’s heartbreak and challenges in dealing with the disease, but more specifically the conflict between the two parents’ preferences in therapy strategies. Claire (Catherine Dildilian) wants to follow the advice of her longtime family physician Dr. Rosen (Valerie Gorman), who clearly follows the thinking of the medical establishment – turning to the American Medical Association and the New England Journal of Medicine for her guidance. Husband Dave (Nick Strauss) believes the son’s autism was caused by mercury-laden vaccinations and is willing to try anything to repair and reverse the damage. The combined stress of raising and protecting a young son with autism together with the conflict of Dave’s choice to implement expensive and time-consuming alternative therapies puts a huge strain on the marriage.

Playwright Pat Curtis has devised a script that clearly lays out the medical issues at stake, but at the expense of character development. Clair and Dave spend more breath discussing medicine and autism than they do revealing very specific information about their characters. The basics are there. Claire and Dave are professionals – he’s an architect and she’s a book editor, though she’s been a stay at home mom since the birth of their son.  Claire has been experiencing the loneliness that is common for new stay-at-home moms, missing the company of adult conversation during the day, but she’s even more isolated because her son’s aberrant behavior has caused other parents to keep their distance from them. Jeff is clearly driven by the belief that he and his family deserve the best quality of life possible. These traits seems true enough, but they’re categorical  – who wouldn’t feel as Claire and Dave do in these circumstance – and they’re insufficient to create characters we really get to know and care about. As is it, they’re made to appear as little more than privileged, whiny yuppies who can’t believe this tragedy has hit their lives. For us to care any more about this family, Claire and Dave have to be defined by more than their son’s autism. As the son, understandably, is not seen on stage, we can only develop empathy for him through the descriptions given by the other characters and that’s not really enough to help us bond with the family.

There’s also the pretty, but bland, therapist Valerie (Molly Bunder) who cares for Jonathan in the home during the day. Valerie supports Dave’s choice of therapies, which together with her youth and attractiveness leads to an expected, but brief romantic threat to the marriage. This plot twist goes nowhere, so why introduce it unless you’re going to do something with it?

Director Jason Paul Smith keeps the cast grounded in a natural and believable style. The histrionics are kept to a minimum and earned when they do occur. The set by Pat Henderson and costumes and props by John Buranosky all contribute to an authentic looks for the Oak Park apartment and doctor’s office. Stage managers Grace Allen and Anthony Stratton keep the production moving fluidly through the many scene changes on the tiny Berger Park Coach House thrust stage, with some lovely music by Gary Gimmestad underneath.

It’s often said that the key to dramatic writing is finding specifics – specific people, situations, and places – and making a general statement from these specifics. Ms. Curtis starts with the general in Joint Attention and never quite makes it to the specifics that would lead us to empathize with Claire and Dave, What she gives us is more of a presentation on autism and the debate over its methods of therapy. It’s informative, and not uninteresting, but not particularly dramatic.

Rating: ★★

Joint Attention continues through November 16th at Berger Park Coach House, 6205 N. Sheridan (map), with performances Thursdays and Fridays at 7:30pm, Saturdays at 4pm and 7:30pm.  Tickets are $25, and are available online through Artful.ly (check for half-price tickets at Goldstar.com). More information at ThreeCatProductions.com.  (Running time: 90 minutes, NO intermission)

 

Photos by Jill Howe

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artists

cast

Molly Bunder (Valerie), Catherine Dildilian (Claire), Valerie Gorman (Dr. Vivian Rosen), Nick Strauss (Dave)

behind the scenes

Jason Paul Smith (director), Pat Henderson (scenic and lighting design), John Buranosky (costume and props design), Gary Gimmestad (original music), Grace Allen (stage manager), Anthony Stratton (assistant stage manager), Jill Howe (photos)

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