True Crime
At: Boxer Rebellion Theater,
1257 W. Loyola
Phone: ( 773 ) 465-7325; $15
Runs through: June 7
There were 65 seats, and I was the only one in them on a wet Thursday night. Just before curtain, three more people came in. It's miserable to perform a show under such circumstances. When the audience doesn't reach critical mass, the intangible but real energy loop between stage and seats simply isn't there. It's a shame, too, when a troupe has poured significant resources into a show, as has Boxer Rebellion. With True Crimes, the always-ambitious company takes a challenging bite of poetic realism. They are not entirely successful, but their effort merits an audience.
In the hollows of Appalachia during the Great Depression, men and women would sell their souls for a few acres. In True Crimes, Ma and Pa Lovel barter their son, Logan, to secure a 200-acre farm. The handsome, sexually precocious young man doesn't hesitate to sleep with a married woman, or seduce her 15-year-old step-daughter.
Nonetheless Logan is the moral center of True Crimes ( based on Tolstoy's The Power of Darkness ) . He has a conscience, which can't be said for his Ma, his lay preacher Pa, the hired hand, or the women he fucks. In their manipulative and greedy hands, Logan becomes the unwitting accomplice to venality, blackmail, murder, and concubinage before being driven to infanticide.
Linney makes this rough stuff palatable through minimalist dialogue, some erotic moments, and an entertaining bible-and-hymn scene. Director and designer Michael S. Pieper's imaginative production enhances the play through Smokey Mountain murals, a fence of quilts that surrounds the stage, and original music ( by Bob Rokos, performed by Wes Clark ) .
But Pieper's pacing is off. As kin to Greek tragedy, True Crimes must build tension by gaining speed and ferocity as it approaches its crisis. Pieper's hand is too steady and deliberate. Also, the big hymn scenewhich sets the plot spinningis lackluster. Half-hearted singing won't do; it must be robust. Instead, every character is downright dour throughout. They need more dimension.
Garrett Prejean is a dark and attractive Logan, with sensual allure and a thick but believable hill country dialect ( the entire cast has worked effectively on dialect ) , but he needs a smile to cement Logan's feckless charm. Angela Bullard as his scheming mother and Janet T. Cummins as his wife-to-be are the principal women, and Bullard paints a horrific picture of what Cummins will become. As Logan's father, John Carter Brown lacks personality. A lay Baptist preacher needs some fire and charisma to lead a flock.
True Crimes is drama by shorthand. Its brevity and stylized dialogue demand absolute commitment, and navigation by subtext through the play's moods. Like the audience, this production is not all there; but perhaps both will come.
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