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18: A Year with Footnotes
by Michael Burgan
Produced by Clio Productions
At The Side Studio
1520 W. Jarvis
Chicago, IL
Call 773-973-2150, tickets $10
Mondays & Tuesdays at 7:30 pm
Running time is 90 minutes with no intermission
Through May6, 2008
One person autobiographical play has little to say
It is difficult to review a play that is the author’s personal story. One person plays are usually about a famous person (Give’ Em Hell Harry about Harry Truman) or about an historical event or even a myth. One person shows are extremely difficult to present. By their nature, they are lectures, narratives and monologues attempting to be theatre. Sustaining dramatic tension as well as engaging and holding audiences presents real challenges for the actor and director. Making an autobiographical story offers even more challenges. It doesn’t help things when the actor sits in a chair and speaks in a sad monotone. Michael Leslie, who plays Michael Burgan, seems to be apologizing throughout as he tells Burgan’s less than inspiring story.
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Michael Burgan writes his story from the launching point of his senior year in high school near his 18th birthday in 1978. Leslie plays those early events with melancholy as he refers to his character as a stoner, loser nerd. He has long hair, is over weight, and lives only for drugs and pop/rock music. He can’t seem to find a girlfriend. We see photo projections of the Burgan family and Michael’s friends. The show suffers from a slow pace and mumbling speech by Leslie.
Burgan’s life story doesn’t contain enough compelling events to sustain a 90 minute play. We hear about Michael surviving a near-fatal sledding accident caused by him being stoned. He didn’t attend his Senior Prom because he didn’t have a date. Instead, he drops acid with Jamie, the only girl he knows. He becomes so depressed because he has never had sex with a girl that, during a vacation in Venice, he ponders suicide.
Michael, after high school graduation, starts seeing his former high school history teacher, fifteen years older than him. Eventually they have sex. Jamie, his friend, moves to NYC and slowly degenerates into drugs in a slow suicide journey. Michael becomes a roadie for a rock group and drops out of college. That short-lived gig leads to him moving in with his former teacher, now his lover. They marry after several years of cohabitation. Their marriage lasts only eight months. While married, Michael visits Jamie only to discover that she is heavy into drugs, alcohol and random sex with strangers. Michael describes how his friend destroys herself. The story erodes from there.
My problem with this play concerns why Michael Burgan mounted this play? What about his story is so compelling that he had to stage those events? While I appreciate Burgan’s honesty, I found his story not too interesting nor worthy of a 90 minute play. Michael Leslie’s flat, almost zombie-like presentation doesn’t give enough of a spark to sustain us through 90 minutes. This show is produced by Burgan and smacks as a vanity project.
Not Recommended
Tom Williams
Tom99@chicagocritic.com for comments
Talk Theatre in Chicago podcast
Date Reviewed: April 21, 2008
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