Playwright: Howard Barker. At: Oracle Theatre, 3809 N. Broadway. Phone: 312-244-2980; $10-$20. Runs through: March 6
One can eventually surmise why Oracle Productions tackled British playwright Howard Barker's unconventional 1985 comic drama The Castle. Though supposedly set in the Middle Ages, the play is stocked with allegorical allusions that parallel issues in modern-day America.
For that reason alone, one might be tempted to offer Oracle Productions a pat on the back and overlook Barker's absurdist and frequently potty-mouthed dialogue that fills his self-proclaimed "Theatre of Catastrophe" play. ( Some would describe it as Monty Python-esque, but to me it came off as self-serving and deliberately obstinate. )
Then there's a very "Aren't we clever?" smugness that pervades this production led by co-directors Ben Fuchsen and Justin Warren. Lowering stage lights into the eyes of audiences ( an obvious staging device of pointing the finger and saying, "You're all implicated, too!" ) or dressing the set with knitted afghans ( to symbolize America's current military involvement in Afghanistanget it?! ) are just two of the annoying techniques in The Castle that make you wish you spent your hard-earned entertainment dollars elsewhere.
The Castle concerns the Knight Stucley ( Jason Rice ) who returns home from one of the Crusades with a Turkish architect named Krak ( Dave Steiger ) . Stucley is shocked to find his kingdom in disarray, particularly his wife, Lady Ann ( Rachel Boller ) , pregnant with another man's child and hanging around with the lesbian man-hating witch Skinner ( Victoria C. Gilbert ) .
So Stucley goes about throwing his kingdom back into order by forcing Krak and the builder Holiday ( Jackson King ) to build a new castle that will be impervious to future attacks ( one can draw a parallel to America's heightened security fears of the past decade ) .
Stucley also ends the woman-friendly freedoms that were put in place during his absence, which then causes all the pregnant women to commit suicide when they realize they don't have control of their own bodies ( this is done in a bit of shadow play that is woven throughout the productionone of the staging effects that isn't as cloying as others ) .
Try as they might, the cast is at sea at attempting to make something coherent with Barker's dialogue. Directors Fuchsen and Warren don't provide the proper guidance by offering an overarching approach to the material, so we get a mishmash of self-aware comic mugging and serious dramatic acting styles.
With The Castle, Oracle Productions does its best impression of a show that is typically the domain of Trap Door Theatre. Do you end up caring about any of The Castle's characters and their conflicts? Alas for me, the answer is, "No."
But can you take solace with all The Castle's political and social relevancies to today? Reluctantly, if that at all.