Playwright: Susan Lieberman
At: Voices And Visions Theatre Company
at Chicago Dramatists,
1105 W. Chicago Ave.
Phone: ( 312 ) 635-8700; $15
Runs through: Dec. 19
In the seclusion of a small town in rural Wisconsin, young doctor Peter Chase toils long hours for minimal pay, for which the townsfolk are grateful. His only company is his viola and his neighbors, Karl and Nan Schuler—citizens of liberal-progressive beliefs ( demanding, for example, that the county newspaper discuss controversial issues such as birth control ) . And so Peter is content. Besides, he has little choice—his prior practice, along with his marriage, ended in banishment following suspicious rumors of his homosexuality. But now his professional duties lead him to become acquainted with one Dr. Henry Meegan, a high-ranking colleague living in Milwaukee who confesses to being likewise lonely and—whattaya know?—also plays the viola.
As directed by Ann Filmer and played by, respectively, John Sanders, Gene Cordon and Marssie Mencotti, Peter and his surrogate parents are practical people, their optimism tempered by awareness of their society's imperfections. For these reasons, we trust that, in moments of crisis, they will do the sensible thing. But Stephen Rader's Henry is a character more at home in the emotionally volatile world of Dumas and Hugo—suave, urbane ( this is Milwaukee, not Paris ) , his intensity hinting at a self-destructive melancholy that foreshadows trouble from his first appearance onstage. Not for him a discreetly closeted existence with his bachelor-companion, but a reckless fantasy of Having It All.
What precipitated this mature, intelligent, articulate play's similarly irrational plunge into operatic bathos? Did playwright Susan Lieberman set out to write a shallow hankie-wringer and the Voices And Visions production company attempt to subvert it into something smarter? Or does the abrupt change in tone, from historical sociodrama to romantic tragedy, spring from creative ambivalence blurring the boundaries of its dramatic universe?
Whatever the answer, when Peter is finally forced to choose between his personal convictions and his lover's passionate pleas—after which it's all over but the tears and the suds—we applaud his decision. More commendable, however, would have been the author's providing him a worthier cause for his sacrifice. A story with so much going for it as this one ill-deserves to have its industry nullified by an inexplicable bout of artistic laziness.