Playwright: Robert Koon
At: Chicago Dramatists, 1105 W. Chicago
Phone: ( 312 ) 633-0630; $20-$25
Runs through: Nov 6
Robert Koon's world-premiere play about an alcoholic writer finding his way back to a normal life after his ex-wife ( whom he still loved ) is killed suddenly in a car accident is terribly earnest. Koon demonstrates an enormous amount of sincerity in crafting this script, which really wants to be Important and to say Meaningful things about Life, Love, and Loss. It's the kind of good intentions that no playwright should ever be condemned for. Shakespeare dealt with the same themes, so did Chekhov, so did Tennessee Williams and just about any other playwright worth his salt.
But sometimes having such good intentions and trying so hard can have deadly consequences. Sometimes the artistic process is all about trusting instincts and letting go. In spite of his good intentions, it never appears in Koon's story that his characters ever really came alive in his mind or that he ever let go enough to let them show him the way. There's no doubt that St. Colm's Inch is a careful, thoughtful work.
But, for all its care, thought, big themes writ large, metaphors, and symbolism, St. Colm's Inch just doesn't breathe. This is ironic because one of the main characters in the play is the dead woman around whom much of the story centers ( played by the always mesmerizing Elaine Rivkin ) . We want to like John ( Mark Ulrich ) a recovering alcoholic writer with a checkered professional past and an inability to get over the loss of his beautiful, Quebecois wife ( even before she died ) . We want to see him crawl out of the hole that prevents him from getting his writing back on track and side with his agent ( played with a lot of volume and little subtlety by Lucas K. Peterson ) when he exhorts him to cast aside his doubts and write again. We hope that John and his late wife's sister, Camille ( solid work from Danica Ivancevic ) , who has arrived to sort out her sister's estate, will find some sort of rapprochement and that both will begin to heal and find love again.
And, on the most basic level, all of our hopes are realized. St. Colm's Inch, directed with a steady hand by Anna C. Bahow and performed by a mostly exemplary ensemble, is a good production that lacks the benefit of a strong script.
It's hard to criticize work that, as I said above, is so earnest and well-meaning. But, as a playwright, Koon works too hard. We see his desire to be meaningful in every scene. Every word, every gesture has import. His themes are universal. These are all good things, as long as we don't see the wizard behind the curtain. Unfortunately, Koon's lever pulling is all too labored and obvious.
In spite of some very solid performances ( especially from female leads Rivkin and Ivancevic ) , his characters never come to life. And that's because they are too much a product of the playwright's Important Message. And when characterization is sacrificed to message, instead of being a logical result of it, it's hard for an audience to be sympathetic.
St. Colm's Inch has to make us care … and this effort left me dry-eyed and coldly appreciative of the playwright's best intentions.