DOWNSTATE – Written by Bruce Norris; Directed by Christy Montour-Larson. Produced by Curious Theatre Company (1080 Acoma, Denver) through April 13. Tickets available at 303-623-0524 or curioustheatre.org.
Downstate! As a born and bred Illini, I know what “downstate” means. There are two regions in Illinois: Chicago and Downstate. A person born in Springfield, Peoria, Champaign, Edwardsville, or anywhere south of the 13 counties that comprise Chicagoland will automatically start a description of their birthplace with “downstate Bement (my home village).” Depending on who is using the term, it is either said with disdain by those up north who look on downstaters as less, unworthy somehow, or country hicks. If said by a resident in the lower 89 counties, it will be issued with a pride of accomplishment (after all, we feed a large part of the nation). Bruce Norris may have grown up in Texas, but he went to college and has had a long successful relationship with Chicago theatres. He knows what Downstate means intimately.
And I think it shows in his writing. His two biggest plays – CLYBOURNE PARK (now playing at the Arvada Center, a Tony, Pulitzer, and Olivier prize-winner) and now DOWNSTATE all involve characters who live in Illinois. The Younger family and their descendants fight for a house in Chicago. The men in DOWNSTATE fight for a place in an unforgiving world. Which is the more noble fight?
The subject matter of this script does not invite neutrality. Your point of view could hinge on your personal exposure (no joke intended) to the crime? Sin? Abhorrence? Whatever you want to call it, pedophilia brands the children involved and deserves the punishment doled out to the perpetrators. But, as with grief, disaster, calamity, there has to be a way found to go on – to keep living somehow. This is what Norris explores by taking us into the house whose residents are four men who have served their sentences in prison but carry the burden of their acts the rest of their lives. Rakeem Lawrence as Gio carries on with small rebellions at his Staples workplace and a flash anger barely under control. Cajardo Lindsey as Dee is a quiet caregiver, the intellectual of the group who will step into an argument in a heartbeat to keep it from escalating. Sam Gilstrap as Felix suffers from isolation from the daughter he loves as a father and who he abused as a man. Jim Hunt, in a wheelchair, is held captive by a couple who hope that confronting him can provide closure to an unwanted chapter—a quartet of downstate bad boys.
Sean Scrutchins plays Andy, a man abused as a boy whose experience is reawakened by the birth of his own child. Karen Slack as Em is his incredibly annoying wife who (we get the feeling) has pushed her husband into this confrontation with his abuser in the hopes that it will lay it to rest once and for all. She is given an incredibly irritating personality by the playwright, which only adds to the awkwardness of the situation. It seems that Andy only wanted a one-to-one meeting to say the things he wanted to say and leave on. Instead he gets interruptions of all kinds, loss of attention, meaningless side discussions, a pitch for a job, and on and on. Very little is resolved but getting to the end of the painful (for everyone) evening is very satisfying.
Others who contribute to this group of players include GerRee Hinshaw, as the parole officer for all of them who makes scheduled visits to the house to see how everything is going and to confront her own set of problems with her charges. She is hard-nosed but understanding, tough but compassionate; she walks the line and then erases it. She is joined in this cast by new-to-Denver Julia McGowan. Watch this one; she’s going to make a splash. In this role, she is a “normal” teenager, another worker at Staples, unafraid of anything, quick to argue but equally quick to forget. While not really involved with the life of the house, she is both a breath of fresh air and a fish out of water.
Together, this cast pulls the very best of this script to the stage making characters who could be nothing but unlikable into fully realized humans doing the best they can with what they have done and what they have been dealt. Those who have been touched by these life events are given a degree of compassion without forgiveness by the playwright. Those who come into their house and their world seeking emotional restitution are made clueless and annoying. It’s a viewpoint that takes a little while to accept, but somehow, by the end, you’re rooting for everyone.
A WOW factor of 8.75!!