Playwright: Allan Cubitt
At: Umalleniay Productions at Live Bait Theatre, 3914 N. Clark St.
Phone: (773) 347-1375; $15-$20
Runs through: May 23
On the stairway leading to the Great Hall at Saint Bartholomew's Hospital in London, we are told, is a painting by 18th-century artist William Hogarth depicting the miracle at the Pool of Bethesda. (According to the Bible story, once every year an angel blessed the waters with healing powers, but Jesus cured a man 'infirm for thirty and eight years' without so much as a drop of assistance.) Arriving and departing daily in view of so impressive an icon, it's no wonder that when the hospital's chief neurosurgeon begins to have headaches so severe as to cause seizures and hallucinations, his visions take the shape of the mystical scenario as pictured by the craftsman renowned for his portraits of criminals, prostitutes and low-lifes.
Playwright Allan Cubitt likewise focuses on his afflicted subject's universe: Initially, Dr. Pearce envisions himself as a physician of Hogarth's time, asked by the artist to pose for Christ in the picture. Surrounded by women of dubious virtue irreverently impersonating the ethereal and enfeebled, in addition to a champion pugilist chosen—however inaccurately—to serve as model for the elderly invalid, Pearce imagines sustaining a blow to the head during a playful lesson in fisticuffs.
But soon the action shifts to the present, the fanciful characters become the doctor's immediate family and colleagues, and his cerebral disturbances are revealed to be an inoperable brain tumor. After that, it's all over but the literary version of the classic Kubler-Ross itinerary: anger, depression, acceptance, kindness toward others, exhortations of worldly wisdom, selfless gestures, etc.
Cubitt's savvy in ascertaining our curiosity before launching us on a journey well-documented in contemporary theatre is commendable, as is that of this Umalleniay production. Brian Sidney Bembridge's scenic design transforms us into observers in a hydrotherapy chamber whose white-curtained tub (with real water) recalls Marat/Sade, as do Tatjana Radisic's provocatively-clad personnel. Even after the ambiance turns prosaic, Mikhael Tara Garver's direction, Natalie Monahan's dialect instruction and an intensely-committed cast led by John Zinn as the humble Dr. Pearce keep our emotions engaged right up to the exquisite final image in a progress all too familiar to us nowadays.
CORRECTION: The first line of Mary Shen Barnidge's review for Hidden Laughter was inadvertently left out last week. The sentence should read 'Romantic Pantheism proposes a return to Nature as the remedy for Whatever Ails Ya'.