Playwright: Julia Cho. At: Next Theatre at the Noyes Arts Center, 927 Noyes, Evanston. Phone: 847-475-1875; $30-$40. Runs through: Dec. 8
Julia Cho's play is set in the kind of prim, cozy, afghan-on-the-chair, quilt-on-the-sofa room occupied by the kind of sweet, smily, cookie-baking granny that immediately has us scrutinizing the furnishings for hints to where the bodies are buried. Our foreboding proves to be accuratebut whenever we start to anticipate the same old story ( pedophilia ) , or the same old old story ( domestic abuse ) , or even the same old old old story ( nazis ) , our bogeyman's face suddenly changes to reveal a visage as provocatively sympathetic as it is horrifying.
Certainly, our cheerful hostess is no Hansel-and-Gretel witch. Herself a musical prodigy with a career sabotaged by an illness affecting her auditory skills, she chose to serve her muse through introducing others to its transcendent power. The escape afforded by the immersion necessary to playing piano is a blessing for this woman who asks to be called only "Mrs. K"her surname, she assures us, being too complicated for us to pronounce. Oh, she knew when she married the now-deceased Mr. K that he was a damaged man, prone to nightmares stemming from boyhood events, but surely, the safety of their quiet American suburb will banish those memories.
Atrocities don't stop at first-hand witnesses, however. Cruelty, with its implication of dominance, exerts its own fascination ( what Sunday-School pupil hasn't wondered just what it would feel like to be nailed to a cross? ) . For those not yet firmly grounded in their abhorrence of inhumanity, the cautionary tales of parentsparticularly when recounted too vividlycan backfire in their intent. Playgoers striving to pinpoint the source of Mr. K's experiences will find it a futile exerciseat what time in history has somebody in the world NOT been engaged in slaughtering somebody else?
Mrs. K's confession requires Mary Ann Thebus, between confrontations with two former students brave enough to re-visit the scene of their turmoil, to soliloquize for over 90 minutesitself an impressive verbal feat, even without the subtextual shadings associated with Mrs. K's gradual loss of innocence, along with that of the children she would protect against the pain of a harsh universe. Cho may linger a bit in her disclosuresher characters have a tendency to preface their significant speechesbut the light she shines on an oft-ignored phenomenon will haunt you forever after.