Playwright: F.X. Kroetz; Translation: Roger Downey. At: The Side Project, 1439 W. Jarvis Ave. Tickets: 773-340-0140 or www.thesideproject.net; $15-$20. Runs through: Feb. 1
Don't be surprised if you do a double take walking up to The Side Project to see Through The Leaves. At first glance, it looks the Rogers Park storefront theater has been displaced by a fully functioning butcher shop.
But in actuality, the butcher shop is just part of the set for Through the Leaves by designer Carolyn Voss. A good portion of this 1976 working-class drama by German playwright F.X. Kroetz takes place in and around the environs of a butcher shop, so kitting out the theater space as a realistic shop makes sense.
Yet it's also a bold and unpredictable decision by director Andy Hager, since the Jarvis Avenue streetscape is in full view to the audience and to any passerby as the play is in progress. The wintry view certainly fits with the first few scenes of the play as it follows the ups and downs of a frequently uncomfortable and unbalanced relationship between two middle-aged Germans in 1975.
But sticklers for authenticity will no doubt grumble as later scenes take place in daytime or summer. The modern vehicles and possibility for people outside to scan anachronistic smart phones as they walk by is also another uncontrollable factor that can take you out of the period look of the show.
Yet, once you get down to the social and gender politics explored in the play, the contrast between the current view outside and the 1970s drama onstage can be symbolic and thought provoking. Especially if you consider how much Western societies have changed ( or haven't ) when it comes to views on gender roles and male/female relationship power dynamics.
Through the Leaves is told from the viewpoint of a middle-aged butcher shop owner named Martha ( Laurie Larson ). She may be financially secure and satisfied with her work, but romance has long passed her by. That is, until Martha starts journaling about her relationship with the brusque factory worker Otto ( H.B. Ward ), who verbally puts Martha down and mooches off of her.
It's clear that much of Otto's sexist behavior is driven by rigid societal views and resentment, so he feels at liberty to use and verbally abuse Martha. That Martha reluctantly puts up with so much of Otto's negativity without standing up to him is often disturbing.
Swallowing such blatant misogyny makes Through The Leaves tough to watch, though more incisive performances by Larson and Ward might have made the show more palpable. Based upon the show's final preview, Larson and Ward hadn't fully plumbed the depths of their characters' frequently unhappy existences. So Though The Leaves didn't leave a dramatic sucker-punch to the gut that it could have.
