Playwright: Jeff Daniels
At: Circle Theatre, 7300 W. Madison,
Forest Park
Phone: 708-771-0700; $21-$23
Through: Oct. 29
BY SCOTT C. MORGAN
Jeff Daniels clearly has a soft spot for Midwesterners—and Hollywood gross-out humor. How else to explain his quirky trifle of a comedy Escanaba in Da Moonlight?
Daniels is best known as a solid Hollywood film actor, playing lovable lunkheads in acclaimed films like Pleasantville, Terms of Endearment and Dumb & Dumber. But Daniels also maintains a love for the Midwest he grew up in by founding and writing plays for The Purple Rose Theatre in Chelsea, Mich.
This theater reflects life and features talent from the Midwest. ( The hit comedy Leaving Iowa had a successful run at the Purple Rose before playing Chicago. )
In its Chicago-area premiere at Circle Theatre, Escanaba in Da Moonlight shows how well-attuned Daniels is to capturing quirky Midwestern slang and culture by focusing on the escapades of five 'Yoopers' ( Upper Michigan Peninsula residents ) . Super-suspicious to the hilt, these endearing guys go on a 'cursed' 1989 hunting trip north of the title Michigan town.
It's all recounted by the grizzled narrator Albert Soady ( Jack McCabe ) , father of two not-so-bright grown sons, Rueben ( Stephen Loch ) and Remnar ( Jason Huysman ) . Problem is that at age 35, Rueben has never 'bagged a buck' in his life.
To change his luck, Rueben deploys a variety of curse-breaking schemes cooked up by his Native American wife, Wolf Moon Dance ( Nilsa Reyna ) . And naturally, these schemes wreak havoc on everyone including the once-alien-abducted hunter Jimmer Negamanee ( an energetic Jay Olson doing his best syllable-slathering cartoon duck voice ) and a freaked out Ranger Tom T. Treado ( Yosh Hayashi ) , who strangely becomes prone to disrobing.
This isn't a knock on gross-out film comedies, which can be brilliant like There's Something About Mary. But those wanting to avoid teen-targeted Hollywood-multiplex fare should be forewarned about Escanaba in Da Moonlight's frequently juvenile humor.
That said, Rob Chambers of The Second City Training Centers directs this light comedy skillfully, consistently milking the laughs from his largely young cast playing up Daniels' testosterone-pumped characters. Employing exaggerated yooper accents, many of the actors also behave like they're Saturday Night Live cast members mocking a type of yokel instead of actually embodying them.
Jack McCabe's patriarchal Soady is the one exception. McCabe fully convinces us as being the genuine article, bringing an authenticity that, while not crucial, is missing from the other performances.
Circle Theatre's hunting shack design for Daniels' play is appropriately rustic and teems with Green Bay Packers memorabilia bringing an extra touch of authenticity ( with kudos going to set designer Bob Knuth, costumer Jessica Pribble and lighting designer Aimee Whitmore ) .
Circle Theatre's Escanaba in Da Moonlight is largely harmless fun. Daniels illustrates a particular group of Midwesterners quite well in this play ( and subsequent 2001 film ) , even if a pungent smell of lowest-common-denominator gross-out Hollywood humor pervades much of the air.
