Playwright: David Alex. At: Polarity Ensemble Theatre with Azusa Productions at Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave. Tickets: 773-404-7336 or www.greenhousetheater.org; $12-$20. Runs through: Aug. 26
It pains me to pan David Alex's world-premiere drama Adrift for Polarity Ensemble Theatre and Azusa Productions. Since Alex is a member of the Joseph Jefferson Awards Committee, I've often seen him in and around Chicago at many a theater's opening night and I will probably encounter him again soon.
But Alex's Adrift, if you want to use a nautical simile, plays like a rowboat where several oars are being paddled in multiple directions all at once. Rather that present a straightforward narrative, Alex steers Adrift down many metaphorical lanes, trying too hard for intellectual complexity that often stifles any genuine emotion or feeling for or from his characters.
Adrift focuses on a newly minted math instructor named Isaac Abass (Colin Henry Fewell), who is trying to make it through his first year as a high school geometry teacher. Abass' father is a widower naval officer named Jack (James Eldrenkamp), who is constantly keeping his son in check with strict remarks (perhaps from the hereafter—Alex doesn't make it entirely clear whether Jack is a guiding spirit or just a mental manifestation of Isaac's doubtful thoughts).
The conflicts in Isaac and Jack's relationship are paralleled in the difficult father-son relationship between Isaac's employer, Principal Judd Benz (Gary Murphy), and his football-distracted son, Tom (Eric Ryan Swanson). Neither sees eye to eye in their belief in God, causing a rift that Isaac tries to mend by stimulating an interest in golf for Tom. But Isaac himself does battle with Benz since, as principal, he's more concerned with increasing test scores and getting positive evaluations rather than Isaac's more holistic approach to education.
Oh, yes: There's also plot strand dealing with Jack's post-traumatic stress over a life-or-death situation that brands him as a "hero." There is also much quoting from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's 1798 work Rime of the Ancient Mariner (which makes you feel inadequate if you were never taught the lengthy poem).
With so much going on in Alex's script, it's hard to warm to director Maggie Speer's production or her quartet of actors, who soldier on doing what's required of them but without much discernable joy behind their work. Set designer Dennis Mae has created an interesting unit set complete with a painterly purple-blue whirlpool effect with nautical detritus and math instruments stuck on a series of nifty curved glass panels that frame the space. (Like the play, it seems to revel in busyness.)
Alex's Adrift might have benefited from a narrowed focus rather than splashing across so many topics and situations. There are some father-son insights to be had in Adrift, but they often get submerged since the play is too overcrowded.
