A Parallelogram

A-

The folks at Second Stage Theater seem to be working their way through Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s backlist. Last season they brought Tracy Letts’s 2003 work The Man from Nebraska to town with (to me at least) middling results. Their latest import from Chicago is this 2010 dark comedy by Bruce Norris (The Pain and the Itch, Clybourne Park, Domesticated and The Qualms). I can happily report that the results are much better this time around. It’s hard to describe the play without giving too much away. Think Twilight Zone and Groundhog Day blended with a witty play about relationships. Although there are metaphysical elements involved in the premise, don’t let that worry you. You don’t need to understand them to enjoy the play. There is also a debate over free will vs. determinism and an attempt to answer the question of how we would behave if we knew the future. Did I mention that the play is also very funny? Bee (Celia Keenan-Bolger; The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Peter and the Starcatcher, The Oldest Boy) is a depressive woman in her 30s living with a somewhat older man, the maddeningly self-absorbed Jay (Stephen Kunken; Enron, Frost/Nixon, Rx, The Apple Family Plays, Nikolai and the Others), who has left his wife and children for her. The characters played by Anita Gillette (Chapter Two, The Big Meal, “30 Rock”) are identified as Bee 2, Bee 3 and Bee 4. Is one of them an older version of Bee, unseen by the other characters, who foretells Bee’s future and has a remote control that allows her to rewind time or even fast forward to the future or is she just a manifestation of some medical problem? Last but not least is JJ (Juan Castano), the Latino lawn boy who develops a rapport with Bee. The production is first-rate: the cast is uniformly excellent, the direction by Michael Greif (Dear Evan Hansen, Next to Normal, Grey Gardens) is sharp and the clever set by Rachel Hauck (Animal, Latin History for Morons) transforms wondrously. Jeff Mahshie’s (Next to Normal, She Loves Me) costumes are apt. The play has more to appeal to the intellect and the funny bone than to the heart. It runs a bit long too. But it you want to see a quirky example of superb stagecraft, I highly recommend it. Running time: 2 hours 15 minutes including intermission. 

The Big Meal *

Do you like watching people eat? Do you enjoy listening to family squabbles in restaurants? If so, Playwrights Horizons has the play for you. It is playwright Dan LeFranc's conceit to present the story of five generations of a family through a series of short restaurant scenes. As the characters age, the actors keep changing the roles they play. Since the story is told sequentially, it's relatively easy to keep track of who's playing whom. The constant bickering quickly becomes tiresome. The periodic arrival of the server with a plate of food becomes a cause for dread. Tom Bloom and Anita Gillette stand out in a fine cast that includes Jennifer Mudge, David Wilson Barnes, Phoebe Strole, Cameron Scoggins, Rachel Resheff, Griffin Birney and Mollly Ward. With too few stirring scenes, the play becomes repetitive and tedious. The decision by this season's hot director Sam Gold (Seminar, Look Back in Anger, We Live Here) to freeze the action whenever someone starts to eat loses its effectiveness rapidly. The set and costumes are by David Zinn (Seminar, Completeness).The play seemed longer than its 90 minutes.