Evanston Salt Costs Climbing is a Constant Truism.

Evanston Salt Costs Climbing was originally a writing assignment while playwright Will Arbery was in college: he had to write a short play based on a headline and challenged himself to find the most boring headline imaginable. The resultant mix of mundanity, absurdity, menace and humanity feels so topical it’s hard to believe it debuted in the relatively innocent days of 2018.

The play opens with long time co-workers and friends, Basil (understudy Christopher Hainsworth) and Peter (Jelani West), before a winter workday in 2014. They work for the city of Evanston as Salt Truck Drivers. They have spent enough time with each other to have a shorthand and easy camaraderie, which is interrupted by a cheery visit from their supervisor, Jane Maiworm, played by Ashley Neal. The back and forth feels lived in, the set up feels like an invitation to enjoy a peek into the lives of a specific community in the Midwest

The First Floor Theater company’s production, in the Bookspan at the Den Theatre on Milwaukee, makes great use of the long, narrow space. The salt warehouse, where Basil and Peter spend most of their time, is at one end, and Maiworm’s home is at the other. Lighting Designer Conchita Avitia did a lot of the heavy lifting in separating the space and creating movement, for example, when Basil and Peter are driving their truck. Sound Designer Matt Reich also deserves special mention: from the turning off and on of the truck, to the wind when the imaginary doors are opened, to the ominous tones that fill the room when Basil’s demons appear, the sound cues help fill out the small space and spare staging with detail and texture.

What begins as a slightly quirky, workspace comedy quickly begins to reveal a darker core. Jelani West’s Peter is a loving, supportive friend, plagued with “sadness” that he cannot shake, and often expresses thoughts of suicide. West whips through laughter and pain with an intensity that leaves the viewer unsettled and a little unsure as to danger to himself or others he might pose. Hainsworth’s Basil, meanwhile, writes creepy, strange short stories, but refuses to dive any deeper into the very real darkness Peter is running from.

At first, Maiworm is just a well-meaning, if slightly self-important low-level municipal employee. Soon, however, we discover she is living with her daughter, Jane Jr., played by Jacinda Ratcliffe, who struggles with paralyzing anxiety and suicidal ideation as well. In fact, it’s Jane Jr. who puts words to the feeling that has begun to creep up as the story unfolds: “Don’t you feel that there is something, underneath everything, that wants us to die?” Maiworm refuses to feel it, putting all of her energy into “administration,” fiercely believing in its ability to keep people safe, and build a community that works for everyone. Ashley Neal moves through the production with a desperate cheerfulness and awkward attempts at friendliness that often produce the biggest laughs, though occasionally come off as slightly bigger than necessary in what is ultimately an intimate look at the creeping, cold anxiety that most of us seem to be living with these days.

As the story continues, things begin to twist and turn in weirder and darker directions. As Maiworm struggles to find safer, more environmentally responsible ways to maintain Evanston’s winter roads, Basil reveals a darker and darker past, and Peter’s menacing depression is met with real-life tragedy. Meanwhile, Jane Jr. is frozen in time, year after year she is stuck in her mother’s house, paralyzed with choice and with the ever bleaker trajectory of climate change. Ratcliffe shines for a moment with a short dance number that is as powerful as it is another rather pointless attempt to get out of her anxiety-ridden hermitage.

The last third of the play goes completely off the rails when it comes to plot. Desperation and darkness are everywhere, the veneer of everyday, midwestern cheer thinning with every moment. Tragedy builds on tragedy, and the characters all long to connect with each other, but often have no idea how to do so with any real meaning. In the end, Arbery seems to be saying that it doesn’t really matter. They are there, they are trying, and as the world ends around us, as salt costs only climb, all we really have are each other – it’s the people that matter, even when they can’t understand each other.

Recommended

Reviewed by Alina C. Hevia

Presented at The Bookspan at The Den Theatre, 1331 N. Milwaukee Ave, Chicago. May 15 – June 14, 2025 Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 8 p.m.; Sundays at 3 p.m. Tickets for  Evanston Salt Costs Climbing  can be purchased online at:  https://www.firstfloortheater.com and range from $10.00 – $35.00.

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