Centerstage - Chicago's Original City Guide

Equity Library Theatre at The Next Theatre, Closing 9/1/96
Directed by Norm Boucher
With Mary Becker, Rick Carter, Beth Jacoby, Susan Nuell, Tracy Payne, Gail Pearce, and Michael A. Termine

Ivy Buirhewlitz has a problem. She's "always trying to fix things, but doesn't know when to stop." Her co-workers at the bank drift off to sleep, shoot spitballs, and as she tells them the same story she tells them "almost every week." At home, her teenage daughter Betty mimes Russian Roulette as single mother Ivy continues her monologue, oblivious. The social worker who drops by to talk about Betty's school problems ends up missing Ivy's point altogether, and sends over a comatose substitute for the non-existent "Mr. Buirhewlitz." Later, when Ivy tries to tell a priest that Betty was the result of a virgin birth, her description of examining herself is so discomfiting to the priest that he doesn't hear the rest. And at last, Ivy finds an aging astrophysicist who does listen to her, who falls in love with her, marries her, and shares his Nobel Prize with her--and just when the play threatens to become interesting, he drops dead.

Unfortunately, we, too, have stopped listening to Ivy. The short, sometimes confusing and unrelated scenes never build to any climax, nor do they often forward the plot. One cannot tell where it's all going, except perhaps to Ivy's "Ascension"--which she finally achieves, through death. Director Norm Boucher keeps the show moving at a brisk pace, having his actors play everything in an energetic, heightened reality--a cartoon reality. Happily, he has assembled a top-notch ensemble to for this premiere of Bret Cisco's new play. As Ivy, veteran Mary Becker is consistent and focused on her pivotal role. Other familiar faces in the protean ensemble include: Gail Pearce, frighteningly plastic as social worker Ms. Flagstaff; commercial actor and voiceover artist Beth Jacoby, full of manic energy in her several intense characterizations; Rick Carter,all sleaze and strut as the horny co-worker and very funny as the skittish priest; the hilarious Tracy Payne in a series of bizarre women, including an aging child star and a gum-pulling leg-splaying job applicant; Michael A. Termine, appropriately dead as Darryl, Ivy's substitute husband, and charmingly cuddly as the old astrophysicist who falls in love with Ivy; and a fetching Chicago newcomer, Susan Nuell, reeling in many big laughs as daughter Betty, her face a study in contortion.

Alas, the material is not up to the cast, however. Perhaps Cisco should workshop the script with an ensemble, and weed out the dramatic cul-de-sacs and detours, and cut about forty five minutes off the running time. There may be a play in there, but I couldn't see it.