Playwright: Stuart Flack
At: Victory Gardens, 2257 N. Lincoln
Phone: (773) 871-3000; $20-$25
Runs through: Nov. 23
Sometime after Sept. 11, I read commentary to the effect that the terrorists, while planning the attack, lived among us as neighbors, perhaps even friends or lovers. At least some of their lives may have been ordinary, with connections forged with the citizens around them. There must have been those who wondered about them: 'who would have thought?'
These ideas were brought home at the premiere of Stuart Flack's world-premiere play, Homeland Security. The play opens with an Indian doctor and his Jewish-American girlfriend being detained at O'Hare. The pair are separated and questioned for hours. As an audience, our sympathies immediately go to the couple, who seem like good, intelligent sorts, preyed upon by a reactionary government in the midst of racial profiling. The Indian doctor, especially, seems persecuted merely for the color of his skin and his extensive foreign travel itinerary.
But as the play progresses, it raises intriguing ideas, causing us to question our initial perceptions. As the interrogation ripples outward, rending the fabric of the couple's relationship, it brings to the fore core issues of trust. It is not only the woman in the relationship who fights suspicion about her partner, but us as well. I won't reveal the ultimate outcome, but playwright Flack has crafted a timely piece that slowly and logically builds to an ending that packs a wallop, politically as well as emotionally.
If Flack had cut down the first act and made it less talky, imbuing it with the kind of forceful drama that occurs in the second act, this could be a four-star production. Still, it's one of the more intriguing pieces I've seen come out of Victory Gardens.
Director Sandy Shinner is in tune with the play's slow build of suspense and suspicion and deftly keeps the action moving forward. Shinner's production is simple, allowing for clarity and power in its human and political messages. The ensemble is strong. Julia Neary, as Susan Freeman, is the strongest, shining a spotlight on a woman whose doubts, suspicions, and desire to love combine to create an atmosphere of unease and dread. Neary perfectly modulates Susan's emotional responses and resists the temptation to play them too broadly. As the interrogator, Kenn E. Head has a difficult task, filling the part at the last minute when Ron OJ Parsons had to leave the cast for personal reasons. Head, given a little more time, promises power and subtlety in this key role, which voices the play's thesis and removes any ambiguity we might be feeling.
Homeland Security is a solid effort, well worth seeing.
PHOTO Anish Jethmalani (front) plays Raj and Kenn E. Head (back) plays FBI agent Thomas Benjamin in Victory Gardens Theater's world premiere of Chicago playwright Stuart Flack's Homeland Security. Written before there was a national department named after it, Homeland Security is a contemporary drama about Raj, a second-generation Indian doctor, and his American girlfriend, Susan, who are detained at O'Hare Airport for questioning on appearances alone.
