Playwright: Lanford Wilson. At: Infamous Commonwealth Theatre Company at the Raven Theatre, 6157 N. Clark. Phone: 312-458-9780;$20. Runs through: July 10
The sheer volume of backstory that probably inspired the two prequels to this, the concluding chapter in Lanford Wilson's trilogy of the Talley clan, may give those unfamiliar with the characters' histories the uneasy feeling of outsiders at a family reunion, but if you listen closely, you'll find plenty of explanatory footnotes to the topics under discussion.
Our location is the Talley homestead in Lebanon, Mo., currently occupied by ambulatory-impaired Vietnam-vet Kenneth Talley, his dotty aunt Sally and his life partner, Jed. On this Independence Day weekend in 1977, Ken is suffering misgivings over the prospect of resuming his old job teaching at the local high school, while Jed is optimistically planting a garden. Obstructing their ruminations are a bevy of houseguests: Ken's sister June and her teenage daughter Shirley, along with childhood chums Gwen and John Landis, the latter of whom might be Shirley's summer-of-love sire. The immediate crisis is Gwen's pursuit of a career as a country-western warbler, to which purpose she has arrived with a stoned-out guitarist in tow and an offer to buy the property from Ken for conversion into a private recording studio.
Wilson's waifs might be fed and dressed more affluently than the drifters of Balm In Gilead or The Hot L Baltimore. However, even if you didn't know that Infamous Commonwealth Theatre had chosen "sacrifice" as the theme for its 2010-2011 season, it should come as no surprise that the prevailing mood is one of youthful idealism gone sour; that each of these post-'60s survivors comes to question their place in the new world order and their responsibilities to one another; or that the schemes of the selfish are ultimately thwarted and the futures of the unselfish guaranteed.
The regrets of a disillusioned baby boom generation following the days-of-rage thrill aroused abundant sympathy 30 years ago, but the challenge to actors in 2011 is to lend immediacy to a zeitgeist nowadays explored to the level of shopworn cliché. An intensely focused cast led by Stephen Dunn as the war-scarred Ken (who projects nervous distress better than any actor now working the storefront circuit) is well up to the task, however, patiently engaging our emotions to render us profoundly grateful for the satisfying resolution that Wilson generously provides us.