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The Attempters
A Rock-and-Rolling, Stump-Speeching, Car-Jumping Romantic Comedy
By Shawn Pfaustch
Directed by Marika Mashburn
Produced by The House Theatre of Chicago
At The Building Stage
412 N. Carpenter
Chicago, IL
Call 773-251-2195, tickets $17 - $22
Thursdays & Fridays at 8 pm
Saturdays at 5:30 & 8:30 pm
Sundays at 3 pm
Running time is 2 hours, 10 minutes with intermission
Through April 19, 2008
Teenage romantic comedy only mildly funny
The House Theatre of Chicago has amassed an amazing amount of first class original work over the last five years. They have taken chances, mixed fine technical work from lighting, sounds effects, puppets, shadows, miniatures, rousing original music, magic sprinkling their shows with everyman (and woman) heroes with workable storylines. They love to have good triumph over evil with young, colorful wacky characters telling their wildly entertaining stories. These devices and mixed media techniques were fresh and bold producing a string of shows that brought new audiences to Chicago Off Loop theatre.
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Unfortunately, The Attempters, by the talented actor/musician/playwright Shawn Pfautsch, isn’t one of The House Theatre of Chicago’s better shows. Billed as a rock-and-roll romantic comedy, it played out as neither funny nor romantic. For a romantic comedy to work, audiences must like the lead and be able to root him (her) to achieve their goal (s)—like getting the girl or achieve their dream. With The Attempters, we don’t relate to a seventeen year old Danny Hackles (played with a zestful exuberance by Chris Mathews). I’m not sure why, but I didn’t buy Hackles for a moment. Maybe because Mathews doesn’t come off as a teenager or maybe we are just tired of teen stories?
The confusing script simply jumped all over the place as Danny Hackles desperately tries to become famous to fill a void in his life from being abandoned by his family. We see him become a rock-and-roller, try running for political office, do a car jump, write an autobiography and invent a new language—Hacklian. The show moves fast, too fast as it never develops enough motivation or character development for us to care about Hackles or his body Finn McKay (Johnny Arena). Hackles’ love interest, Nola (Mary Winn Heider) is also underdeveloped. The humor seems forced and plays only to the 20something audience members as us gray hairs seldom laughed. Danny Hackles comes off as a pompous, self righteous egotist rather than a lovable young guy with whom we can cheer for. Chris Mathews worked hard to win us but his character simply wasn’t designed to do that.
The Attempters has some of The House’s trade mark elements: live rock music and a funny and well produced film segment. My main problem with The Attempters is that it is a series of disjoined scenes with sardonic humor that comes off as neither very funny nor very biting. It lacks a sharp edge. Also, Hackles is a character that I found to be more obnoxious that charming. I couldn’t care less about him. The script needs trimming and a clearer through storyline and stronger motivation for the characters. It is time that The House moves on past teenage stories.
Still, The Attempters has enough raw energy and exuberance and cute moments with several up-tempo rock songs to appeal to The House’s core audience—the 20-something theatre patrons.
Somewhat Recommended
Tom Williams
Tom99@chicagocritic.com for comments
Talk Theatre in Chicago podcast
Date Reviewed: March 5, 2008
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