{Playwright: Carter W. Lewis
At: Pegasus Players, 1145 W. Wilson
Phone: ( 773 ) 878-9761; $18-$22
Runs through: June 22}
Although it bills itself as based on H.G. Wells short story, 'The Country of the Blind,' The One-Eyed Man Is King's connection with Wells' story of a mythical South American kingdom whose residents have all lost the sense of sight is tenuous at best. Carter W. Lewis uses Wells' story, with its clever reversal of how a sighted man, stumbling into the Country of the Blind, actually becomes an aberration, one of the handicapped, rather than a leader, as a starting point for his modern day tale of a blind burglar and his relationship with a rich suburban matron whose husband is dying.
Lewis' story, which is murky in theme and intention, seems to want to make us see how the blind burglar is actually the most sighted character in the play, carrying with him an insight for clarity, direction, and purpose. The matron whose house he seeks to burglarize ( played with boozy credibility and angst by Laurie Larson ) lives in a cloud of alcohol, unhappily surrounded by expensive objets d'art and a husband who is dying offstage of a degenerative disease. She also has to contend with a teenage stepdaughter, who is a walking stereotype of adolescent aggression and rebellion ( played unconvincingly by Julie Mann ) . She's ready for a change, and that change comes in the form of the blind burglar ( a quietly intense and believable portrayal from Brett Owen ) . The two form an uneasy alliance, and he teaches her how to see through the darkness, in essence, how to feel. Since the blind man is teaching the sighted something about life and the world, Lewis' theme takes a clever reversal from the Wells' story that inspired him. Too clever. As with many clever exercises, they have some superficial flash, but leave one to muddle questions of motivation and empathy.
Pegasus, under Alex Levy's direction, has mounted one of their best-looking productions, with its detailed and believable set design by Jack Magaw ( the house captures the feel of a New York bedroom community manse ) . It's just too bad the play doesn't match the veracity of the set. Lewis gives us little reason to care about his characters and, by the end, when they have made some transition ( the father has died, prompting a bare set and its intimations of new beginnings ) , we're left to supply our own reasons for why. The One-Eyed Man is King is also a talky exercise, with a second acts that gets bogged down in words, becoming soporific. It doesn't help that the role of the burglar's father, an Italian immigrant who supplies most of the background of Wells' original story, is played with ham-handed ineffectiveness by Jim Sherman, whose attempts at an Italian accent would be better left untried.
The One-Eyed Man Is King is like the faux art displayed on stage: nice to look at, but ultimately empty and fake.
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