Kelly O’Sullivan, John Stokvis/Photo: Michael Brosilow
Jason Sutherland, the new artistic director at Evanston’s Next Theatre, makes his Chicago directorial debut with Peter Sinn Nachtreib’s end-of-the-world comedy “boom.” This play crackles with all the smartassery and f-bombs one would expect from a hip new play, although sometimes that hipness feels a little contrived. Don’t get me wrong, there are some really funny moments and artful turns of phrase, but what starts out as a rather intriguing story about two quirky loners bunkered down together as a result of a Craigslist personal ad suffers the drag of a second storyline, that of a museum curator with career troubles. Sutherland does an admirable job of keeping the action moving in Andre LaSalle’s beautifully rendered basement lab, but ultimately the play aches when it departs the apocalyptic aftermath and delves into the unnecessary personal problems of the curator. Although Nachtrieb exhibits great craft in shaping inquisitive characters full of honest emotional malfunction, he misses when he forces theatricality that is already present in the play. (William Scott)
Next Theatre, Noyes Cultural Arts Center, 927 Noyes Street, Evanston, (847)475-1875. Wed 1pm (Sept 30 and Oct 7 only)/Thu 7:30pm/Fri-Sat 8pm/Sun 2pm. $25-$40. Through Oct 11.
One Response to “Review: boom/Next Theatre Company”
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September 15th, 2009 at 11:40 pm
Despite strong technical elements, The Next Theatre production of BOOM is a misguided heavy-handed mess. A good portion of the humor in the text was completely lost and I was left uninvested, not caring, in the characters and their plight. The role of Barbara is seriously miscast and misinterpreted, no fault of the actress. I blame the majority of their staging on the direction as opposed to the writing.
The reason I say this is that this summer I went to see a non-equity staging of the play in the back room of a bar in Louisville. The Louisville staging didn’t have much in the way of production values but the dialogue soared, as evidenced by audience response alone. The actors committed to the reality of the play, kept the stakes high, without taking themselves so serious that the tone of the production was reminiscent of a Greek tragedy. The Next production bulldozed over some of the plays best lines and moments, ultimately compromising so many opportunities for much needed levity.
BOOM is not nearly as crippled a piece of theatre as many critics here are making it out to be.
Hopefully, despite some of the play’s structural issues, another theatre in town will have a crack at it. It has far more potential than seen this time around.