The Shadow of Death cast itself across Scott McPherson's short life and over his work. His final play, the award-winning Marvin's Room, features a woman and unseen man with life-threatening illnesses. 'Til the Fat Lady Sings, McPherson's first long play written in college and drawn from personal experience, centers on mom Pat O'Niel and college student Sean O'Niel grieving for a son/brother killed in an accident. McPherson himself lived with/died of AIDS, as did his lover Danny Sotomayor.
Playwright: Scott McPherson. At: Citadel Theatre at Victory Gardens. Greenhouse, 2257 N. Lincoln. Phone: 773-871-3000; $25. Runs through: June 29. Photo by Michael Metzger
Both Marvin's Room and Fat Lady focus on boys not sure how to contend with an adult world—a world filled with arbitrary and random events to which adults react in ways the boys finds absurd. McPherson rejected 'God's Will' as a response, mocking religion in 'Til the Fat Lady Sings, although by Marvin's Room a decade later he tacitly acknowledged a spiritual truth he found in individual dedication, self-sacrifice and purpose. In his two full-length plays, drawing on autobiography, the spiritual figures are quietly heroic women.
Despite thematic and structural similarities, Marvin's Room and 'Til the Fat Lady Sings are quite different. The former is mature, polished, pithy and profound with generous elements of comedy and gallows humor. The latter is unpolished, is often awkward and borrows shallowly from sitcoms. In it, McPherson made several typical newbie-playwright mistakes. At least eight characters appear only once or twice and don't affect the outcome. Most notable of these is another brother in the army who goes AWOL to visit his family; but his one scene goes nowhere. Even more, the sitcom of Act I is abandoned in Act II as McPherson moves haltingly towards the obligatory mother-son scene that is the work's raison d'etre. It's a powerful scene at the end of a rocky playwriting road.
Still, 'Til the Fat Lady Sings reveals a talent, voice and attitude with its dark and sardonic humor, its skepticism and wit. Take Grandmother's comment on shabby post-funeral food: 'Death is more than macaroni and bundt cake. When my son died we had roast beef! ... In my day, funerals were worth dying for.' Now, that's both sharp and wry.
Performing in Chicago, Lake Forest's Citadel Theatre Company hovers between community and professional theater. In the crucial roles of Pat and Sean O'Niel ( the McPherson character ) , the capable Ellen Phelps and Adam Rife deliver the goods when finally given the opportunity for emotional substance late in the play. We may see more of Rife. The numerous supporting players range from good to serviceable, mainly in the comedic first act. Less Boyd's bright mid-American kitchen set provides appropriate decor.
'Til the Fat Lady Sings is a bittersweet play rather than a great one, and a bittersweet remnant of a talent lost.
Note: There will be a benefit performance for Season of Concern Wed., June 18, at 7 p.m. in honor of McPherson at the Victory Gardens Greenhouse, 2257 N. Lincoln. Tickets start at $75; RSVP to Stephen Rader at 312-332-0518.