Playwright: Brendan Healy
At: Open Eye at the Athenaeum
Phone: ( 312 ) 902-1500; $15-$18
Runs through: Aug. 20
One of the great things about reviewing theater is not so much seeing work by accomplished playwrights ( which is, of course, a terrific benefit ) , but in seeing work by playwrights or companies just coming onto the scene. There can be a lot of chaff to sort through to get to the grain, but when you do find something worthwhile, it somehow means more if it's relatively new and untested.
Playwright Brendan Healy's Relatively We is just such a case: a delightful promise of great things to come. Healy is just finishing up his MFA in writing at the Art Institute of Chicago ... and his world premiere play is full of wit, humor, and great ideas. Healy has an acute ear for dialogue, the absurdity of the human condition, and the need for connection. Relatively We is a mature work, full of thought-provoking insight, humor, and controlled chaos. There are flashes of inspiration here that bode well for this playwright's future.
And Healy is well-served by having his work staged by Open Eye Productions, one of the city's more accomplished small theater companies. Director Daniel Shea has a deft touch here, keeping the multi-layered, multi-textured play at an always entertaining and accessible pace. Shea has a confident, inspired ensemble to work with, including Robyn Coffin and Chris Maher as the lead couple around whom all the action revolves ( on the night I saw the production, an understudy—Kevin Grubb—filled in admirably for Maher ) , Tony Piscotti, Sara R. Sevigny, Kate Cares, Christopher Kaye, Tom Weber, and Robb Rabito.
With Healy's script ( about a retired beauty queen and a U.S. senator's upcoming nuptials, and the conflicts that ensue when the beauty queen's son make his disapproval of the marriage clear, and when a couple of her ex-lovers arrive at the party the couple is having to celebrate their union; throw a dash of physics, a couple history lessons, and just a soupcon of nuclear explosions and you've got a bizarre, but ultimately touching and fulfilling play ) , Shea's direction, and the multiple talents on stage, Relatively We makes for a great summer evening's entertainment.
Jim Moore's set design, John Haverkamp's lighting, and Rachel Sypniewsk's costumes all contribute to a perfectly realized creative vision.