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Boy
By Julia Jordan
Directed by Chris Arnold
At Circle Theatre
7300 W. Madison Ave
Forest Park, IL
Call 708-771-0700, tickets $24
Fridays & Saturdays at 8 pm
Sundays at 3 pm
Running time is 1 hour, 50 minutes with intermission
Through February 24, 2008
“I thought what you did when you grew up was have a viable career and fall in love so as to maintain some semblance of a f---ing life worth living. That's what I thought. I guess I'm just a stupid kid from Iowa but I recently notice that. You should try noticing simple things like that.”
---Boy
Modern storytelling unfolds as a compelling puzzle
Julia Jordan sure is a storyteller with talent. She reminds me of Sam Shepard with some Neil LaBute thrown in. Her latest work, Boy, now in a Midwest Premiere at Circle Theatre, is a suspenseful tale of a family filled with secrets that become exposed through the efforts of a 17 year old physically and emotionally scared Boy (John Wehrman). Boy uses the Internet to connect with Mick, a 30 something failed actor and his family in an attempt to both tell his story and to find how to properly end his story.
Boy finds all five characters with secrets and emotional desires desperately trying to be expressed. Each finds their story worth telling. Boy become the lynchpin as he weaves into the lives of Mick’s family. We witness the meltdown over 24 suspenseful hours. Boy first meets Terry (the emotionally intense Dennis Newport), the psychiatrist and father to Mick seeking help with Boy’s traumatic incident in an Iowa cornfield with his four buddies. Mick is a failed actor who tries to rekindle his romance with Sara (Lindsay Nance) after three years. Maureen (Rula Sirhan Gardenier) is Mick’s mother and Terry’s wife. She is an English Lit college instructor who finds a terrific writer in Boy. Maureen and Mick fight over the father’s condition and Mick’s future.
Not wanting to spoil the suspense and unique plots twists, let me say that Boy unfolds as a compelling, emotionally wrenching drama utilizing Boy’s elaborate storytelling to seduce each character into dealing with their secret desires as all struggle to find how to end their story. We find out why Boy always ends his stories with ''And they got high and lived happily ever after.''
This well written and cleverly plotted story is nicely paced and skillfully acted. John Wehrman’s Boy is eerily effective and Dennis Newport’s Terry displays an emotional range that is scary. I think this story is worth telling. Julia Jordan is a promising playwright. Kudos to Circle Theatre for mounting this modern thriller.
Recommended
Tom Williams
Tom99@chicagocritic.com for comments
Talk Theatre in Chicago podcast
Date Reviewed: January 16, 2008
Jef Recommended
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