Playwright: Lucinda Coxon. At: Shattered Globe Theatre at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont Ave. Tickets: 773-327-5252; www.shatteredglobe.org; $28. Runs through: March 2
It happens nowadays all over the industrialized world: An attractive young married woman meets a charming old married man at a business conference. He explains that the secret of his marital contentment lies in his being unfaithful to his vowsaway from home, mindand advises her to adopt this same policy. She defends her fidelity, but remains to hear more. Upon returning to her family, she considers the wisdom of his philosophy.
We wonder why it took her so long: Mrs. Kitty Warrington's children might be forgiven behaving as children do, but her husband is almost wholly absorbed in the teaching job he took after giving up a law career. Their likewise-wedded best friends squabble like siblings playing as grown-ups, and their avuncular gay chum can't seem to find Mister Right, either. Kitty also must cope with her embittered mother and crisis-prone fatheroh, and a colleague suddenly stricken with cancer. Who could blame a devoted spouse for straying on occasion?
The "diary of a mad housewife" story dates back to Madame Bovary and Anna Karenina (and maybe even Medea), but found its modern prototype in the 1967 novel bearing the title that defines the genre. Lucinda Coxon's contribution differs not only in the detachment of its critique (at no time does she appear to be addressing her own personal issues, in other words), but in the surprisingly un-British compassion she extends to all these victims of middle-class boredomwho may be annoying and/or exploitive, but are never portrayed as fundamentally bad people. Her absence of vindictive pettiness awards even alcoholic neighbor Miles, who displays the maturity of an adolescent bully, his moment of redemption. This makes a plausible case for Kitty's staying the course with her nerdish hubbyfor awhile longer, anyway.
It's still no easy task to engage our sympathies for these screwed-up boorjays, particularly with Amanda Rozmiarek's quasi-Magritte scenic design stealing focus at every opportunity, but under Roger Smart's text-focused direction, the actors of this Shattered Globe production reject the safety of sitcom stereotypes (although the TV series Will and Grace figures prominently in the domestic wars) to lend each character his or her full share of humanity. Smug bachelors and spinsters (like me) may smirk, but couples approaching the seven-year-slump can take comfort in the assurance that Happiness (with a capital "H")with sufficient care and patiencemay prove to be more than a myth concocted by authors of television comedies.