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Wedding Play
Written & Directed by Eric Rosen
Produced by About Face Theatre
At Steppenwolf Theatre’s Garage
1624 N. Halsted
Chicago, IL
Call 312-335-1650, tickets $20 - $35
Wednesdays thru Saturdays at 8 pm
Sundays at 3 pm
Running time is 2 hours with intermission
Through December 2, 2007
Skillfully written and marvelously performed makes Wedding Play a ‘must see.’
Eric Rosen, one of the co-founders and artistic director of About Face Theatre, may be leaving for Kansas City soon but he leaves a gem of a play with About Face Theatre. Rosen is a skillful playwright able to hold us on the edges of our chairs throughout his part mystery, part comedy and part romance—Wedding Play. This thrilling gem grabs us and holds us throughout. Rosen cleverly uses flashbacks and direct narrative to tell his story from several points of view. We easily follow him as we wonder what will happen next and why it will happen.
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Rosen uses a small Chicago theatre troupe motif where a celebrated playwright Adam Mace (Sean Cooper) has created serious buzz with his latest play. Rosen weaves the background story nicely with first person narrative by key characters. We meet Tom Braddle (Benjamin Sprunger), Adam’s lover for several years and star actor in many of Adam’s plays. He is now bitter after losing Adam to fellow actor, Thalis (Lesley Bevan) who has know Adam since college. The two have a pact that he’ll help Thalis have a baby at age 35 if she isn’t married by the n.
Soon after Adam and Thalis are married, the baby and Thalis die under mysterious circumstances. When Tom is cast in Adam’s new play, he quickly realizes that art is imitating life as he concludes that the deaths may not have been accidental. Rosen cleverly weaves flashbacks to reveal how Adam’s unique writing style (and methods) generously takes actual events as their base as Adam dramatizes and fictionalizes them to fit his concept of the play. The eschewed line between actual events and fictionalized drama unfolds into one smart and compelling mystery. We get enough hints as to Adam’s character throughout the play but we still aren’t sure if he is a killer or simply a skilled dramatists? See the play to find out. You’ll be glad you did.
Kenny Mace (Craig Spidle), Adam’s father appears to tell his side of the story that Adam used in his earlier hit play. We learn about how Adam easily changes actuality into high drama. Adam needs a skilled director, Jon Kay (Joe Dempsey) to direct his ultimate, comeback play, Wedding Play, since it is his most personal work to date and part of his plan. The use of the ‘play-within-a-play’ technique together with numerous time changes works seamlessly as anchored by first person narrative directed to the audience. Rosen demonstrates his craftsmanship both as a playwright and a director with this outstanding play. Sean Cooper as the troubled Adam gives a moving and emotionally deep performance of the genius writer. His complex characterization makes Adam an enigmatic person.
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The pacing and planting of clues works nicely to create enough dramatic tension to sustain the mystery while the character development gives us the motivation to understand the plausibility of the plot. It all comes together in the conclusion. The twists are plausible. Wedding Play is a sophisticated mystery/comedy/drama that is so refreshingly different that it deserves a large audience. Eric Rosen shows why he is a first-rate storyteller and dramatist.
Highly Recommended
Tom Williams
Tom99@chicagocritic.com for comments
Talk Theatre in Chicago podcast
Date Reviewed: November 3, 2007
Jeff Recommended
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