It
is 1950 in Midwestern America. Do we know where our children are? Shattered
Globe Theatre's
stunning production of William Inge's "Come Back Little Sheba" creates a magnificent
little troubled and resolute world at Victory Gardens Greenhouse Theatre. This was
William Inge's first play produced on Broadway, brought to New York by the
Theatre Guild for a highly respected five month run in 1950. It is a shame that
this current Chicago run ends October 21 - this is a piece of active,
mesmerizing, provocative, American theatre not to be missed.
Eleven
characters and almost as many actors live in or visit a powerfully evocative
small town middle class home in the course of this play, with the lamps and
window coverings relatives might have owned (scenic design by Kevin Hagan), and the household products and
kitchen implements delightfully incorporated from that same era (props design
by Julia Eberhardt).
Lighting designer Mike Durst creates post dawn, pre dawn, evening effects through the
household windows that set an eerie and fascinating tone. Sound design by Jeffrey
Robert Dublinske
provides hints of children playing and bird singing --- of the small town
neighborhood world that our characters watch from inside their limited world.
All of these components are melded by director David Cromer into thrilling thinking theatre,
with extraordinary and surprising physical moments.
Doc
(John Judd)
plays a man of studied calm, harnessing demons, attempting to hold his own
through disappointments. His portrayal of a long married middle aged man is
part Norman Maine (without the charm) and part Pa Walton, and wholly riveting. Linda
Reiter is Doc's
spouse Lola, a middle aged housewife of haunting resonance, living with her own
sorrows and disappointments, getting little jabs of joy from listening to radio
soap operas and watching the amorous antics of her young female border. Doc and
Lola's sensual and intelligent border Marie (Maggie Corbett) is finding her way in world in
which the social rules have changed for women since Lola's girlhood. Marie's
gentlemen callers include a local college boy Turk (delightfully and
energetically evoked by Jayce Ryan) and her long distance conventional boyfriend Bruce (Ryan
Martin). All of
the additional supporting players are also strong.
This
is a play of perceived social limitations and the effects on characters. The
women in particular live with the permission of the men in their lives. Marie,
the border, has an active sex life with a local college student yet is serious
about Bruce, the boy back home. Lola once may or may not have had sex with
someone other than Doc, who may or may not have impregnated her, yet he married
her when they were still teenagers and has resented and slightly mistrusted
Lola ever since. When she lost the baby (and no others came), Lola appears to
have retreated into her kind world of engaging with trades people and having no
friends. When she calls home at one point to inquire of her mother "do you
suppose Daddy will let me come home?" Lola's face when listening to her
mother's reply is worth the price of admission. Truly a stunningly succinct and
powerful performance.
The
play's title evokes Lola's tentative hold on hope and her lost sense of
mothering. Lola has recently had a puppy named Sheba who has run away; she
utters the line "Come back little Sheba .. come back" when she is at
her most bereft. Her world has narrowed to her husband, her house, their one
border, and her loneliness. One neighbor and the deliverymen of whom she asks
one too many questions (you sense their reluctance to enter her needy world
when they arrive) constitute her universe.
The
story of this play is of loneliness and commitment. There is obligation and
yearning and glimpses into secret passions throughout the text of this play and
in the exquisite staging of these performances. The resolution of the play
comes through a wary and blank forgiveness. Doc demonstrates limited self
awareness and yet a willingness to try to button up his behavior. We know
Lola's limited options and yet ... there is always hope. When Lola reaches out
and makes a real connection (e.g. with the body building milkman played by Michael
Falevits or with
her neighbor Mrs. Coffman played by Eileen Niccolai) she successfully broadens her
world. We find ourselves cheering Lola on in her adventure. And we cheer this
production.