Playwright: Brett Neveu. At: Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Randolph . Phone: 312-443-3800; $10 - $38. Runs through: June 22
Maybe there's a metaphor in the endless Bears games that drone from the television in Arthur and Sons gas station. It certainly seems like there should be, since roughly a third of the dialogue is characters reacting to various plays and players. And while there's no question that the everyday banter of regular joes can be rich with profundity, it isn't found here. Watching Brett Neveu's drama is like hanging around a slightly seedy convenience store listening to depressed employees chitchat for two hours.
Much as it aspires to be otherwise, Gas For Less is not about mankind's eternal, embattled attempts to cope with change, or to derive meaning from the casual chaos and mundane cruelties of blue-collar life. It's about slack-jawed gas-station employees who never get around to restocking the shelves when the cigarettes and candy start running low. With glazed eyes and shrugging shoulders, grumpy old-man owner Arthur ( Robert Brueler ) and his grandson manager, Anthony ( Rian Jairell ) , watch TV, argue about petty management issues and reminisce about the 1986 Super Bowl. And that's about it.
Yes, somebody gets shot, but it's an event that carries the weight of a blurb in the paper about some stranger getting popped. You read it, you think, 'Huh, sucks for him,' and you forget about it. Like Waiting for Godot, Gas For Less is a play wherein men wander the wilds of insignificance and meaninglessness. Unlike Godot, the play itself is meaningless. Sure, the guys at Arthur's are conflicted about the remodeled Jewel across the street and are quick to hate on the neighborhood shop owner who sells out to a chain corporation. But the conversation, like the plot, is aimless.
Moreover, late in the second act, a key character suddenly begins behaving in a manner that utterly defies credibility. 'I don't even know where that came from!' exclaims mini-mart regular Pat ( Ernest Perry, Jr. ) . You can say that again.
Chicagoans familiar with the North Side gas station that Neveu based Arthur and Sons on will get a nostalgic kick out of Tom Burch's utterly authentic set. Ditto Arthur, Anthony and Pat's play-by-play reactions to the Oct. 9, 2005 Bears vs. Cleveland Browns game and the Dec. 25, 2005 Bears vs. Packers game. But the appeal of Gas For Less gets no wider than those very specific demographic groups. Anyone who has seen director Dexter Bullard's ingenious, engaging with the Plasticene theater company knows he's a fellow of great gifts. Here, he's got nowhere to apply those gifts.
For a decade, Neveu has been heralded as a hip, hot young emerging playwright. After 10 years of emergence, one begins to wonder if there's really anything of note coming down the pike.
