Playwright: Bruce Graham. At: Northlight Theatre at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, 9501 Skokie, Skokie. Phone: 847-673-6300; $30-$50. Runs through: June 19
Carolyn Heilbrun, the pioneering feminist scholar also known as whodunit-author Amanda Cross, had long proclaimed that on the day that she saw no future but "inevitable deterioration", she would take her own life. That day arrived October 9, 2003, and, at the age of 77, she did as she promised, leaving a note reading "The journey is over. Love to All."
So you see, there's a real-world precedent for the argument proposed in Bruce Graham's intelligent and highly original play premiering at Northlight Theatre. Its premise is simple enough: feisty Gunner Concannon is gradually succumbing to Alzheimer's disease and suddenly his wife's favorite expression, "Have you lost your mind?" isn't funny any more. Graham doesn't take the easy route in discussing his discomforting topic, howeverGunner is not reduced, dramatically, to a passive victim whose fate is left for others to debate and ultimately determine. No, Gunner has made his own departure plans, and they don't include geriatric services aimed at prolonging length of days, but not of consciousness. ("I didn't work all my life to give it away to a bunch of doctors!")
Why would someone choose suicide as his deliverance from this mortal coil? Fear of intolerable physical or psychological abuse (and only each individual can determine what comprises "intolerable") figures in Gunner's decision. So does redemptionthe insurance money paid upon his death will redeem the past sacrifices made by his loved ones on his behalf. The only snag in his patently rational proposal is his need to explain himself to his distraught spouse and ambivalent son, pursuant to receiving assurance of their understanding and approval.
It takes a likewise steadfast production team to pull against the urge toward knee-jerk emotionalityafter all, this is America, where frontier values declare every life worthy of preservation (an attitude diminishing in popularity under economical pressure, but that's a subject for another play). Director BJ Jones and a cast led by John Mahoney, with muscular support forthcoming from Rondi Reed and Thomas J. Cox, never flinch from Graham's unswerving candor, commanding our attention right up to the final moment when Andrew Hansen's superlative seaside soundscape signals Gunner's farewell ferry ride on the Chesapeake Styx.