Playwright: David Harrower
At: Strawdog Theatre, 3829 N. Broadway
Phone: (773) 528-9696; $18
Runs through: March 8
What we have is an allegory of evolution. It also could be an allegory of literacy's triumph over speech, or perhaps industrial technology over agricultural tradition. Or it might just be a sordid tale of a wife swapping her crude-mannered mate for a more gentle-tempered one. What's certain is that author David Harrower has packed a helluva lotta metaphor into his 75-minute play.
The contrast between the farmer called Pony William and the miller named Gilbert Horn is evident from the moment we meet them. William speaks in declarative sentence fragments, employing mostly common nouns (addressing his wife only as 'woman' and the REFINERY boss—are you taking note of this?—as 'miller'). Horn, on the other hand, speaks in complete, grammatically complex, sentences and is first seen WRITING at his DESK, flanked by shelves of BOOKS. Caught between these stages of civilization is the young woman identified only by her relationship to the men. Her innocence is likewise reflected in her discourse—initially, a simple subject-verb inventory of her immediate environment. But after copulating once with the educated Horn, her linguistic prowess improves considerably.
Does Pony William's paternal attitude toward his bride constitute marital abuse or necessary protection? Is Horn's attraction to the 'horsewife' motivated by mentorly interest or plain old lust? Does that damsel's curiosity stem from a longing for intellectual growth, or does she seek to improve her social status though association with a more upwardly-mobile consort? Is William's death an accident or foul play engineered by lovers more comfortable with murder than with adultery? Or are they all just victims of biological and economic Progress?
Nic Dimond's bleak scenic landscape and Julie Stanton's keening violin warn us early on that this will not be a cheerful story, but Kimberly Senior's ambivalent direction often makes for more subtext than we can fully absorb in so abbreviated a playing time. Chris Hainsworth projects a suitably boisterous virility in the role of Pony William, and John Ferrick an enigmatic strong-and-silent sensitivity as Gilbert Horn. Next to such mural-sized archetypes, however, Jennifer Avery's Young Woman is rendered rather insipid by modern standards. But personalities, ultimately, are as irrelevant to Nature as morality to Industrial Expansion.