Playwright: Julia Jordan. At: Circle Theatre, 7300 W. Madison, Forest Park. Phone: 708-771-0700; $24. Runs through: Feb. 24
Circle Theatre often presents the Chicago or world premieres of unfamiliar contemporary plays, and such is this quirky psychological thriller. Directed by Chris Arnold, it's mostly played with fierce intensity—especially by John Wehrman in the title role—which emphasizes the quirks and improbabilities.
The nameless title character is the sole survivor of an adolescent suicide pact among five rural Iowa stoners, in which shotguns and carbon monoxide left four boys dead and the survivor partially paralyzed. Now living in Minneapolis, the boy sees a psychiatrist and takes a community college English Lit class. Posing on the internet as a Vietnam vet, the boy has arranged to meet an older stoner who is the purported inventor of a vaporizer that renders marijuana odorless.
Turns out the shrink and college professor are conflicted husband and wife, and Vaporizer Man is their 30-ish slacker son returned from three years in New York. Actually, Mick is the first character we meet, climbing through the window of Sara, his former girlfriend who's now in medical school. The boy—really Mick's alter ego—insinuates himself into the life of Mick's family as the equivalent of a homunculus, a parasitic and malformed being or partial being that lives within a human. The exorcism or excision—spiritual or medical, take your pick—of the homunculus from Mick ( and from his family by extension ) is the play's story.
As it proceeds, Boy becomes less and less believable, even given the willing suspension of disbelief by an audience. The play's structure is thin and obvious despite literate and engaging dialogue. Using a literary metaphor, author Julia Jordan frequently has characters discuss the structure of stories—beginning, middle and end. Also, characters drop lines such as 'So many people have someone else inside them,' and 'What you should have noticed is that you have more than enough of everything you need.' We get it.
And then there's the boy himself, a mis-socialized marijuana/acid stoner who seems out of time and place in contemporary reality. Playing him as an obvious crazy you'd cross the street to avoid, the focused but feral John Wehrman makes your skin crawl. I think Wehrman delivers precisely what was asked of him, but I question director Arnold's choices. What if the boy were casual, unforced and disarming so the horror of his history and his psychological terrorism unfolded slowly? Rarely opting for subtlety, Arnold requires four of his five actors to become hysterical at least once, usually turning on a dime to do so. Steven Camara ( Mick ) , Rula Sirhan Gardenier ( college prof ) , Dennis Newport ( shrink ) and Lindsay Nance ( Sara ) complete the dedicated ensemble laboring to flesh out characters which, like homunculi, are not fully formed. Still, one thanks Circle for embracing the unfamiliar.