Playwright: Tarell Alvin McCraney. At: Steppenwolf Theatre Company, 1650 N. Halsted St. Tickets: 1-312-335-1650; www.steppenwolf.org; $20-$78. Runs through: June 9
It's too simple to say Head of Passes is the Book of Job minus the happy ending, although playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney clearly has taken Job as a starting point. Like Job, Shelah Reynolds's steadfast faith is tested to the breaking point yet she refuses to "curse God and die." However, unlike Job she has no prospects of a new family and renewed prosperity, so why is she tested? With no reward for Shelah's faith, McCraney's play is hard-as-nails and the God he implies is shatteringly cruel, which may be precisely McCraney's point. He anchors his play firmly in the Old Testament, not the New: Shelahitself an Old Testament Hebrew namenever invokes Jesus, but only the Lord.
The time is "the distant present," the same mythologizing delineation McCraney used for his astonishing previous work, The Brother/Sister Plays, and the place is Head of Passes, the primal Louisiana marshlands where the Mississippi River empties into the sea. Shelah's comfortable home there is well-furnished although in need of repairs. On her birthday, Shelah hosts employees, friends, her two adult sons and an estranged step-daughter, Cookie, the illegitimate child of Shelah's late husband. Shelah hides her terminal illness and attempts reconciliation with Cookie, who had been sexually abused by her father.
Told with plentiful humor, Act I appears to be a conventional family drama to play out in Act II. Instead, McCraney literally blows Shelah's house and life away to focus entirely on Shelah's unquestioning faith in the near-monolog Act II. Delving deeper into the Old Testament, Head of Passes explores the concept of the sins of the fathers being visited upon the offspring "of those who hate me." But Shelah loves the Lord and follows His commandments, thus invoking God's love "to a thousand generations of those that love me." Which is it? Is Shelah punished for ignoring evidence of abuse under her own roof? She thinks so, but McCraney leaves that determination to the audience.
Head of Passes is quite different from The Brother/Sister Plays which were buoyant, joyous and unexpected with their use of music, storytelling and tribal-inspired ritual. This one is simpler and far more realistic as written and performed, yet emphatically is a work of substance and consequence. Especially in Act I, McCraney takes joy in drawing his characters although he offers neither hope nor redemption as the play moves to a close.
Tina Landau, directing with assurance and understanding, has drawn the performance of a lifetime from veteran Chicago actor Cheryl Lynn Bruce as Shelah. She pulls out all the stops, by turns warm, funny, fervent, bewildered and hopeful. The supporting ensemble is excellent and David Gallo's scenic design sports surprises, but the play belongs to Bruce.