Playwright: James Saunders. At: BackStage Theatre Company at the Building Stage, 412 N. Carpenter St. Tickets: 312-491-1369; www.backstagetheatrecompany.org; $25. Runs through: Aug. 26
The old-fashioned casket in the lobby is our first warning that the play's title will not herald a romp in a summer garden, but not until after the burial box is brought onstage and the mourners arrive does it occur to us that the young woman napping on the sofa is not one of them. Is it her sunny orange mini-dressa stark contrast to the somber black and gray attire of the assemblageor is it the curious ebullience with which some of the attendees greet her, while others ignore her as if she were invisible? Gradually, we come to realize that she is the purpose of this gathering.
Would you want to be a spectator at your own funeral? Like it or not, 14-year-old Zoe must endure the response of her surviving kin to her suicide, following an abortive love affair with a married teacher at her posh private school. As the bereaved make their observances, each according to his/her individual personalities, we are apprised, via flashbacks, of the counsel they afforded her in her moment of crisis. It soon becomes apparent that all of these peopleindifferent papa David, spartan stepmother Agnes, jocular Uncle Edgar, cheerful stepbrother Godfrey, assorted clergymen and eldersultimately failed, as they continue to fail, this romantic waif in search of affection. Ironically, a pair of strangersthe two undertaker's assistantsare the only ones able and willing to ease the departed to a comfortable rest.
James Saunders' 1966 play is a distinctly British brand of drama, but while its dialogue sometimes exhibits the reiteration characteristic of internal-consciousness narration, Matthew Reeder's direction keeps the emotional subtexts as immediate as their progress is unhurried over the two and a half hours (with two intermissions) necessary to fully delineate every step in this final, untimely journeytoo swift a pace could easily reduce Saunders' delicate repartee to sentimental precocity. Jess Berry (recently seen in Griffin Theatre's Punk Rock) conveys the pain and terror of adolescence with never a trace of mockery, though ably supported by a cast invoking compassion for flawed human beings whose neglect is based not in malice, but ignorance.
The cooling equipment in the warehouse-loft Building Stage renders this BackStage Theatre Company production's inside temperature somewhat balmy for a summer performance space (albeit not sweltering). The rewards for contemplative theatergoers, however, are well worth the trek to the up-and-coming Near West Side.