Not For the Squeamish

Yen – Raven Theatre

In Anna Jordan’s prize-winning play about a dysfunctional family, Raven Theatre presents a drama that’s difficult to watch, yet, in the end, mesmerizing to experience. As the story slowly unfolds, and we come to know and understand these four characters, the audience finds a certain tenderness buried inside, along with the strength of brotherly love and a final moment of redemption.

Two teenagers, 16-year-old Hench (whose real name is Paul) and his 13-year-old brother Bobbie, share a filthy flat somewhere in England. Maggie, their young, diabetic mum, has moved out to go live with her current boyfriend. She’s left the family dog, Taliban, to keep her boys company; but they keep him locked in the bedroom because he once bit someone. Living alone without any adult supervision, the angry, lonely and undisciplined  brothers spend day and night sleeping on the pullout couch, watching violent pornography on the television and playing video games. They constantly argue and wrestle, sharing their lone teeshirt, and surviving on snack food that Bobbie steals from the nearby convenience store. Every so often, Maggie shows up at their door for a visit, usually drunk or on the verge of a diabetic coma. Every day is the same…until Jennifer arrives at their door.

She lives in an apartment across the way with her stepfamily and has spotted Taliban through the boys’ window. Because Jennifer has a fondness for animals, she’s become concerned that she never sees the dog outside being walked. So Jen brings a leash, a couple toys and some dog food and pays the boys a visit. The Welsh-born teenager becomes friends with the two boys, even bringing some civilized decorum to their savage existence.

When Maggie shows up one evening, interrupting the kids’ makeshift fancy dinner party, their childish mum becomes jealous of Jennifer and, after a verbal altercation, takes Bobbie back to live with her at the boyfriend’s apartment. Although their relationship remains innocent, Hench and Jennifer become even closer, until a psychological problem sparks a brutal quarrel and the couple’s separation. It’s then that the drama ratchets up to a climax that’s both cringeworthy and sad.

Anna Jordan has a real talent for creating scorching drama, a serious play laced with ribald humor and four-letter words, that’s both hard to watch, yet difficult to look away from. It’s a story filled with anger and violence, yet a certain tenderness that sneaks up on you unexpectedly. Elly Green has beautifully and unflinchingly directed this stunning production, never soft-peddling the harshness and always steering its trajectory toward its poignant conclusion.

The cast is incredible. Chicago newcomer Reed Lancaster is outstanding. His often zombie-like expression belies all the emotion that his character has pent up deep inside. The actor’s tenderness with Jennifer, and at times with Bobbie and Maggie, is sometimes unexpected, but an honest part of his personality. As Bobbie, Jesse Aaronson, a recent graduate of the University of Michigan, makes his auspicious debut at Raven Theatre. Aaronson’s stunning, multilayered portrayal of this youngster is high-spirited, barbaric and, at times, heartbreaking when being cradled by his mother. He’s a little boy trying to survive as an adult. The two actors portray kids who have been psychologically damaged, but have such a tight chemistry that theatergoers will be convinced that they’re actually brothers.

Maggie, as played Tiffany Bedwell, barely offers her boys the necessary love and care one would expect from a mother. She’s still a young woman so, in her mind, she’s not ready to settle down to raise kids. Maggie gave birth to them, endured a couple abusive husbands, and now she’s a gal out for a good time. Maggie can’t even act like an adult when it comes to keeping her own diabetes under control. Only in a few instances do we see a maternal instinct emerge that suggests that, under different circumstances, Maggie might’ve been a better mother.

Radiant in previous performances at The Gift Theatre and at Silk Road Rising, Netta Walker is a breath of fresh air in this foul, fetid story. She brings some much-needed joy and a compassion for these two needy neighbor boys that demonstrates a maturity like no one else in this play. While being deeply sweet and moving, Ms. Walker avoids the pitfalls of becoming overly saccharine or sentimental. She creates an honest, likable character who provides the heart and soul of this play.

Dysfunctional families are as common today on stage and film as loving, two-parent families once were in the mid-twentieth century. But, in Anna Jordan’s riveting play, now having its Chicago premiere at Raven Theatre, the dysfunction is tempered by two brothers’ love for each other and the kindness of a stranger. Sensitively directed by Elly Green, with a stellar quartet of gifted actors, this drama may be difficult to watch, and it’s definitely not for the squeamish. It’s filled with moments that may offend, even shock, the most conservative audiences. But, as staged within Joe Schermoly’s detailed dirty contemporary English flat, but these characters and their story are guaranteed to haunt the liberal, open-minded theatergoer for a long time to come.

Highly Recommended

Reviewed by Colin Douglas

Presented March 25-May 5 by Raven Theatre, in their intimate West Stage, 6157 N. Clark St., Chicago.

Tickets are available at the box office, by calling 773-338-2177 or by going to www.raventheatre.com.

Additional information about this and other area productions can be found by visiting www.theatreinchicago.com.