Playwright: Richard Greenberg
At: Steppenwolf Theatre Company
Phone: ( 312 ) 335-1650; $20-$60
Runs through: March 12
Anxiety can paralyze and even move us to commit odd acts; just think of the Democratic soccer moms frightened into voting for Bush. This world premiere from the author of Take Me Out explores urban anxiety in post-Sept. 11 New York, and it's as pithy, clothed, cerebral and hetero as Take Me Out is exuberant, nude, physical and gay. The Well-Appointed Room is two companion plays with a common setting, well-designed by Robert Brill: a large, formal apartment living room with high ceilings and heavy crown moldings as well as an open-air luxury kitchen installed on one side.
For the opener, Nostalgia, there are stainless steel kitchen appliances, expensive lighting and mid-century Eames and Mies-style furniture. Running just 35 minutes, Nostalgia is a classic two-character exercise in which Natalie destroys her successful playwright husband, Stewart, as he cooks a Sunday morning omelet. The issues aren't love and marriage, but Greenberg's professional anxieties. Natalie, a relentless antagonist, pierces the writer's heart by asking what makes his work better than others, then adding, 'Has it ever occurred to you that you are irrelevant?' Director Terry Kinney ( a Steppenwolf co-founder ) extracts full-throttle performances from Ensemble members Tracy Letts and Amy Morton in sharp and energetic attack mode as Stewart and Natalie, like The Bickersons on venom.
Nostalgia is the writer's nightmare while Prolepsis, the longer and more important second piece, is Greenberg's exploration of everyone's nightmare. The room is empty for Prolepsis, in which Mark and Gretchen are successful, loving and eager to start a family. When their first-choice apartment is rendered uninhabitable by the Sept. 11 attacks, they buy Stewart's unit. Gretchen, eight months pregnant, suffers delusions as they move in, believing a lifetime has passed; her unborn son is grown up; and she and Mark are moving out to retirement. Vaguely yet comprehensively fearful of facing life or bringing a new life into the world, Gretchen creates an idyllic fantasy of life already lived. Gretchen and Mark each meet secondary characters ( doubled by Letts and Morton ) who re-enforce their perspectives. Kinney mellows the mood for Prolepsis, allowing guest artists Josh Charles and Kate Arrington to play Mark's and Gretchen's sweet romance, and treating Gretchen's illness as gentle insanity ( Arrington is winsomely convincing ) .
Although under two hours, The Well-Appointed Room boasts Greenberg's signature well-spoken wit, literary references ( Proust, Henry James, Strindberg ) and stylish verbal set pieces. Still, it may leave viewers unfulfilled as it raises fundamental questions Greenberg can't really answer. It's a work of mood and emotion rather than of story or characters. The meatier Prolepsis achieves a superficial happy ending when Gretchen's fantasies end, but Greenberg doesn't assure us that Gretchen's anxiety has dissipated. How could he? Think of the soccer moms who voted for Bush.