Playwright: Rebecca Gilman
At: Eclipse Theatre Co. at Victory Gardens
Phone: ( 773 ) 871-3000; $22
Runs through: April 23
By Jonathan Abarbanel
Playwrights are fascinated by artists driven to the brink of psychosis and/or suicide by human need, creative impulse and emotional insecurity. I've seen dramas about Sylvia Plath, Virginia Woolfe, Van Gogh and Poe, to name several. Two of the best of this genre, although dealing with fictional artists, are John Olive's Standing On My Knees ( directed locally by Robert Falls at Wisdom Bridge Theatre ) , and this one by Rebecca Gilman, both with female heroines. Olive's more profound romantic drama adds the complexity of a love affair, thereby portraying his heroine as an artist, patient and woman, while Gilman's chaste comedy focuses on the heroine only as artist and patient. Gilman's play is breezy, pithy, fast-moving and audience-pleasing, but attempts less than either Olive's play or Gilman's own best works, such as Boy Gets Girl, which is the next Eclipse production.
The Sweetest Swing in Baseball concerns Dana, a painter confronting her own success, a boyfriend who leaves her and a discerning but blunt-speaking dealer. Under pressure to produce, yet insecure about her own talents and worthiness, Dana attempts suicide. In the psychiatric hospital where most of the play is set, Dana befriends Gary, a would-be murderer, and Michael, an alcoholic. They coach her into pretending she believes she's baseball player Darryl Strawberry as a scam to stay longer in the hospital. Eventually she begins to believe her own act, using occupational therapy to create naïf paintings of baseball-playing chickens, signing them with Strawberry's name. They are brilliant, Dana's dealer displays them and they sell. 'You've got to get outside your head to get ideas, but I never thought of getting inside somebody else's,' Dana comments.
The five-person ensemble is first-rate, as directed with sparkle and snap by Nathaniel Swift. Playing Dana, slim Janelle Snow turns on a dime from wistful to vulnerable to pseudo-tough, and summons plenty of vocal power when needed. Most of the noise, however, comes from Gary Simmers as the robust and affably crazy would-be murderer; a real Cuckoo's Nest kinda guy. Kevin Scott, as the quieter alcoholic, offers engaging and sympathetic support. Frances Wilkerson and Kerry Richlan double as art dealers and doctors, and bring as much depth and variety as possible to the play's thinnest characters.
Mike Winkelman's open, airy scenic design provides an intriguing playing space with its semi-abstract painted floor of swirls and a few angular, geometric set pieces that suggest the surreal, well-supported by Chris Corwin's lighting. The effect is, by degrees, sterile and spooky yet alive, and sometimes suggesting the arena of a baseball stadium. Victoria DeIorio's excellent original piano music ( played by Christopher Walz ) establishes mood and tone via deconstructed variations on Take Me Out to the Ball Game.
