Playwright: John Belluso
At: Victory Gardens, 2257 N. Lincoln
Phone: (773) 871-3000; $25-$28
Runs through: Nov. 14
Before I say anything critical, I want to make it clear: I loved this play. I loved it not because of the important issue regarding healthcare in America today it raises, but because playwright John Belluso understands what makes for good creative writing. He knows that really good stuff, the stuff that draws people in, begins with characterization. In Pyretown, Belluso creates a couple of wonderful characters that are so real and sympathetic that you can't help but get completely involved: when they laugh, you laugh, when their hearts break, so does yours.
These characters are Lou (Elaine Rivkin, in one of the most accomplished performances I've seen on a Chicago stage) and Harry—Aaron Roman Weiner, who makes his wheelchair-bound character cross crossed paths in their neighborhood grocery, but where they really get to know one another is in their town's hospital emergency room waiting room. Lou, a separated mother struggling to raise three children on her own, brings her sick toddler daughter for treatment. Harry, paralyzed in a diving accident when he was 16, comes for myriad reasons. Because they are both on managed care plans and both rely on the government to pay their medical expenses, each endures long waits and the specter of claim denial.
It is during one of these waits that the pair meets, becomes acquainted, and eventually starts a relationship, in spite of the fact that Lou is 16 years older than Harry and that she is a fan of TV and he of Dostoevsky. It is this doomed love affair that forms the play's heart.
With all of the issues going on above, you might think there's enough there for a play, for the chance to explore issues both timely and human, but Belluso also has a third character in this drama, and it's this third character that causes some missteps. Dr. Adler (Melissa Carlson Joseph) is young, pregnant, and pretty much forced, in her small town, to take a job as a medical claims reviewer for the large HMO that runs the hospital where Lou and Harry meet. Her ability and inability to deal with the separation of healthcare from mercy and compassion in favor of corporate profit make for interesting viewing. But the problem with Dr. Adler is in her characterization, which, surprisingly from a playwright so gifted, is weak. This character is weak for two reasons. The first, and most damning, is that she crosses the line from being a human being into being a puppet, mouthing what are ostensibly the playwright's positions on the state of healthcare in America today. It's too overt, and it removes us from seeing the doctor as a real person. Second, and perhaps in an attempt to humanize her, he makes her a Romantic (capital R intentional), in love with poetry and turns of phrase. Her opening monologue, which ran far too long and was far too repetitive, is a good example. She goes on at length about notions like 'thin fibers of connection, tiny shards' when a simple one-sentence statement would have gotten the point across. It's like there are two plays here, one pretty first rate, and the other needing work.
However, that should not stop you from seeing Pyretown, which is a wonderful play, full of heart, fine performances, and assured direction from Tim Farrell. It's just that right now, this play hasn't quite moved from being full of potential to a work of real art.