Playwright: Thomas Bradshaw. At: American Theater Company, 1909 W. Byron Ave. Tickets: 773-409-4125; www.atcweb.org; $43-$48. Runs through: Dec 13
Always-interesting Thomas Bradshaw's world premiere is an allegory rather than a fully-fleshed story. It centers on Michael ( Stephen Conrad Moore ), who's a 40-year-old, African-American upscale attorney who's not yet made partner after nine years with the firm. Is it racism? Or his drinking problem? Or that he hasn't recognized either one as a problem as the play starts? Swirling around him are two dimensional types: manipulative boss ( perfectly smarmy Scott Olson ), sexy but quasi-spiritual girlfriend ( steely Erin Barlow ), white best bud ( pliable Jason Bradley ) and upstairs neighbor-from-hell ( comically repulsive Jeff Trainor ).
In fact, Bradshaw's New York City setting is altogether hellish; a 752-square-foot condo costs $1.5 million, the girlfriend likes spank-sex in stairwells and reciting mantras with a guru, the boss uses Michael to impress Black clients and the upstairs neighbor is a torturer. There's much talk about karma, meditation and how to channel the godhead within us, but Michael never quite gets his act together before he blows his professional prospects. Then his upstairs neighbor baseball-bats him into a coma. Does Michael have it coming? As Sondheim observes in Into the Woods, "Be sure that what you wish is what you want."
Bradshaw puts his central Black characters through difficult tests, which swell the controversy that often follows his plays. In Mary, seen at the Goodman Theatre several years ago, the title character must either betray her greatest ally by outing him to his gay-bashing father, or compromise her anti-gay Christian beliefs. As the play progresses, she becomes increasingly less sympathetic. In Fulfillment, Michael betrays his boss just when he's offered an opportunity to make partner, and betrays himself in an alcohol-and-coke binge. Michael is easy to like but impossible to respect. His girlfriend says Michael seeks fulfillment in the wrong things, yet Bradshaw offers no alternative other than the vague notion of self-denial and self-discipline. What does Bradshaw want from people?
Fulfillment plays out in a quick 90 minutesmuch of it funny at first, but increasingly tense and dark. There's a lot of simulated sex, some of it bordering on violent and most of it gratuitous; but then, Bradshaw likes to put on a show for audiences, and nimble director Ethan Sweeney gleefully assists him in this co-production with New York's Flea Theatre. Among theatrical devices spicing things up are sex choreography ( by Yehuda Duenyas ), live sound effects amusingly performed by Trainor and an important heard-but-not-seen character. Stephen Conrad Moore, as the somewhat-enigmatic Michael, provides a powerful physical presence ( talk about built! ), yet nonetheless creates a gentle giant with an occasional nasty streak. Brian Sidney Bembridge provides the handsome sleek, gray-toned apartment-and-office setting on American Theater Company's reconfigured stage, which is shallow but more than 40 feet wide.