Review: The North Pool (Interrobang Theatre Project)

It's no accident that The North Pool begins with a hoodie. Khadim (Salar Ardebili) enters the vice principal's office sporting the very garment that has generated so much controversy, in a supposedly progressive age during which young men of color risk their lives by leaving their homes, driving cars or purchasing snacks. In Khadim's case, it's the last day before spring break at his new school and Dr. Danielson (Rob Frankel) wants to talk to him. Khadim does not know the reason for this meeting, but Dr. Danielson has a definite agenda. What follows plays out in 80 minutes of real time, and feels strangely anticlimactic. While playwright Rajiv Joseph has penned a strong, dynamic script and the two actors mostly carry it off well, director James Yost has almost shied away from the tough subject matter that makes plays like The North Pool so important.

Not only is North Pool in real time, the entire play takes place in Dr. Danielson's office. Set designer Greg Pinsoneault beautifully conveys this setting in letter-perfect detail, making a public high school space into a work of artistic realism. Everything down to the institutional clock and the gray file cabinets, the map of North America and the stacks of file folders, is so painstakingly rendered that I momentarily forgot where I was and worried I was in trouble. It's here that Dr. Danielson begins with vice-principal bonhomie, just this shy of totally off-base, and quickly descends into an interrogation. You see, Khadim skipped school last week. And he lies about it. He may be lying about other things as well. Maybe. Why did he transfer so abruptly from private school? What exactly are his parents doing in Saudi Arabia? How exactly is he handling a classmate's recent death? And what does Dr. Danielson hope to get out of this?

Joseph, a Pulitzer Prize finalist who also authored the luminous dramedy , tackles a tricky subject in an intelligent, nuanced manner. Yes, racial profiling is happening, as is a very obvious abuse of power on Dr. Danielson's part. Joseph doesn't let Dr. Danielson get away with these terrible acts, but the playwright also doesn't take the easy way out by turning the character into a cartoon villain. (Let me give a disclaimer: blatant racists do exist, and even one is far too many. What's difficult is telling this kind of story in a way that doesn't reduce such an individual to a trope, thus losing the audience's interest.) Nor is Khadim a perfectly behaved student: he's a teenager, and teenagers do stupid things all the time. And this isn't a simple case of racial profiling that one might see badly dramatized on "Law & Order." What distinguishes Joseph as a playwright is his ability to humanize each of his characters. No one's all good. No one's all bad.

However, plays as complex as Joseph's - and in general, plays with only two characters and no intermission - require extremely smart direction. It's challenging to keep the action moving and energy flowing for that long of a timespan, with such a tiny cast and only one setting. I wish that director Yost had taken every opportunity to up the tension, to distinguish the beats, to really put us in the characters' minds (regarding the latter, even the playwright can only do so much). What worked so well about Sideshow's , which also involved the unfair interrogation of a young person, was the genuine fear the audience felt for said young person. In both plays, the interrogator doesn't have any weapons at his disposal, but so much else is threatening - and the stakes keep getting upped. The North Pool feels like a flat line: though details are revealed over the hour and 20 minutes, confessions are made and emotions hit the wall, the characters don't appear to change. Even in the final moment, which should be a draining denouement, lacks any real tension.

Now in its sixth season, Interrobang Theatre Project prides itself on presenting plays that ask questions. Its theme this season, according to the program, is "unnatural disasters": stories of "worlds turned upside down," and how people navigate their strange new worlds. Season opener Katrina: Mother-in-Law of Them All was, on the whole, successful in its oral history of a poorly-handled natural phenomenon that devastated an already-marginalized population. Interrobang faltered last winter with their as they attempted to find humor in 9/11 using a puppet of author Joyce Carol Oates, of all things. The North Pool falls somewhere in the middle. As with both of its predecessors, The North Pool 's plot is extremely topical to anyone who doesn't live under a rock. With bolder directing choices, however, this production could have earned a full 4 stars.

The North Pool continues through June 26th at Athenaeum Theatre's Studio 2, 2936 N. Southport (map), with performances Thursdays-Saturdays at 7:30pm, Sundays 2pm & 7:30pm. Tickets are $24 (students: $17; seniors: $14), and are available by phone (773-935-6875) or online through OvationTix.com (check for half-price tickets at Goldstar.com ). More information at InterrobangTheatre.org. (Running time: 80 minutes, no intermission)

behind the scenes

(director, photos, co-artistic director), Greg Pinsoneault (scenic design), Noël Huntzinger (costume design), Rob Stepek (lighting design), Mealah Heidenreich (properties design), Morgan Lake (sound design), Lisa Giebler (technical director), Samantha Dzirko (production manager), Sarah Gise (assistant director), Albert "Beep" Trefts (production stage manager), Georgette Verdin (co-artistic director), Christopher Aaron Knarr (house manager, marketing, social media), Zoë Verdin (graphic design)

Tags: 15-0546, Albert "Beep" Trefts, Athenaeum Theatre, Beep Trefts, Chicago Theater, Christopher Aaron Knarr, Georgette Verdin, Greg Pinsoneault, Interrobang Theatre Project, James Yost, Lisa Giebler, Mealah Heidenreich, Morgan Lake, Noël Huntzinger, post, Rajiv Joseph, Rob Frankel, Rob Stepek, Salar Ardebili, Samantha Dzirko, Sarah Gise, Zoë Verdin

Category: 2016 Reviews, Athenauem, Interrobang Theatre Project, Lauren Whalen