Playwright: Bathsheba Doran. At: Griffin Theatre at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave. Tickets: 773-975-8150; www.theaterwit.org; $35. Runs through: June 10
The action in Bathsheba Doran's play begins with an academic treatise entitled "Keats' Punctuation," but a more intriguing topic for scholarly study might be an ethnographic analysis of its dramatis personae: The characters include two young women from different parts of the South given to copious tears of both the quiet and stormy varieties; an elderly Irish matron leading a hermit's life following an assault decades previous; and three men of diverse ages at a loss to cope with these emotional issues, along with assorted relations, mostly estranged or deceased, whose influencein particular, their predilection for suicidal melancholylingers on. Also making brief appearances, by way of contrast, are a flinty Texas spinster bravely confronting terminal cancer and a sturdy New England damsel undergoing rehab after her bout with self-destruction.
If this roster seems lifted from the literature of two centuries earlier, it's because Doran's universe does not concern itself with external social or economical factors (everyone is financially well-off), but purely with spiritual comfortidentity, security, the pursuit of an idealized and therefore, elusive, happiness. Its narrative fulcrum is the courtship of Anna, a Columbia University Ph.D, and Sean, an athletic instructor, who meet via the Internet. No sooner do we make their acquaintance, however, than we are introduced to Sean's agoraphobic mum and her expat brother; Anna's military-officer dad and his lady friend; and Anna's high-strung chum from boarding-school days.
The evolution of these pilgrims doomed to waffle in indecision and misunderstanding spans seven years and two countriesor so we are told, since the demarcations on Scott Davis' open-plan stage are as nebulous as the chronology of its inhabitants' progress, though Kathy Logelin's dialect instruction provides welcome geographical context. Under Jess McLeod's direction, a cast of hard-working actors mine their roles for psychological subtext, creating personalities ultimately sparking our sympathies, despite the exasperation engendered by Doran's affinity for therapyspeak. (Having rejected the word "crazy" for the gentler "troubled," Anna triumphantly declares herself, "fragilebut not troubled.")
Doran arrives with impressive credentialsOxford, Cambridge, the aforementioned Columbia, awards on both sides of the Atlantic, a writing gig with HBO's Boardwalk Empireand there's no denying this Griffin Theatre production's appeal to a wide audience demographic. Although its insularity is better suited to a novel than to a play, that same quality should earn it the acclaim of hankie-wringing romantics.