Carter Lewis's small-scaled exploration of the currently terrifying generation gap at first seems conventional and correctible discord, but with surprising inexorability it becomes an explosion of heartbreaking hopelessness. We know that Gloria (Annie Fitzpatrick) is trying to convince herself more than to convince her husband Clay (Skip Greer) that she feels only anger at her son Danny, still uncommunicative upstairs as the couple prepare a meal on the patio. Danny has evidently produced a gun in school and been sent home. When Evie (Magan Wiles), Danny's annoyingly sulky girlfriend arrives and says that her mother can't join them, the blood on her neck raises suspicions -- ours as well as Gloria's.
Most of the ensuing action consists of getting the food on the grill, then on the table, and resisting communication. But the rifle shots from the woods above the patio change things. Danny is firing at the house. And he's in serious trouble. Later revelations about Evie's mother's death, plans (including maps of the school) to use that gun they got off the internet to counterattack after school bullies have mocked and beaten up Danny too often, and hints about desperate final measures the two teenagers have decided upon are, I guess, surprising. But what may be shocking is the mixture of love and antagonism between the characters and the sense that they can't, and we can't, understand what these desperate kids are thinking. I suspected Evie of manipulating the never-seen Danny into misplaced violence, but I gather that she is intended to be the play's tragic heroine. What Carter Lewis has done here, with first-rate help from the three actors, director Tim Ocel, and the designers' unusually detailed production, is insure that this disturbing melodrama is uncomfortably real. Even Danny is real without ever coming down to join the three who remain sitting and eating and unwilling to look at one another anymore.
Opened:
April 24, 2009
Ended:
May 24, 2009
Country:
USA
State:
New York
City:
Rochester
Company/Producers:
Geva Theater Center
Theater Type:
Regional; LORT
Theater:
Geva Theater - Nextstage
Theater Address:
75 Woodbury Boulevard
Phone:
585-232-4382
Genre:
Drama
Director:
Tim Ocel
Review:
Cast:
Annie Fitzpatrick, Skip Greer, Magan Wiles
Technical:
Set: Jack McGaw; Costumes: Christina Selian; Lighting: Derek Madonia; Sound: Dan Roach; Dramaturg: Marge Betley
Awards:
2009 KEVIN KLINE AWARD: Best New Play
Miscellaneous:
<I>Evie's Waltz</I> first appeared at Geva Theater Center's "American Voices" series of new play readings in 2008. It received its world premiere performance at the Repertory Theater of St. Louis in October 2008 and was produced by the Magic Theatre of San Francisco in December 2008. The two actresses playing Evie and Gloria created these roles in the original St. Lewis production.
Critic:
Herbert M. Simpson
Date Reviewed:
April 2009
