Squeamish

Squeamish opens on a lone woman, Sharon, sitting on her therapist’s couch after having abruptly stopped seeing him a few months ago. In crisis, she has found him at his home. She begins to explain where she has been these past few months, and take her doctor and the audience on a journey of loss and addiction and her, let’s call it ‘unorthodox’, way of dealing with them. I won’t say more so I do not spoil the show.

People have always used scary stories to help us conquer our fears. Underlying all the great monster stories are our real fears about the world. Squeamish uses its gothic setting and story elements to explore addiction and traumatic loss. A few of the story beats were pretty clear, at least to me, pretty far off, but by and large, that works because we know the character is careening off a cliff even if they do not. Knowing where the story is going only heightens the tension. Solo actress Lauren Miller has a tall order here. She has to hold your attention for ninety minutes and imbue life into characters and events that are not seen directly on the stage. Overall, I think she succeeds. Particularly when sketching out a faded, airless hotel room in Texas or the often repeated fights with her family, the character and the story come to life. I think it is slightly less effective when she recounting a character recount a story to her. It’s one layer too many of telling and not showing, but that’s a pretty small complaint. A one-woman show like this has to survive on the atmosphere created by the its star, and Miller definitely nails that.

From a production standpoint, the show does a lot with a little. The stage consists of the couch Sharon tells her story from and a standing lamp with a hue light. I enjoy the stripped down nature, and particularly for the kind of spoken aloud campfire scary story being told, less is more. The focus remains, as it should, on Sharon and her story. Horror themed plays are not everyone’s cup of tea, but for the horror-averse friend in your life, I can tell you that the action on stage is not explicitly depicted, only masterfully described. And this isn’t technically part of the show, but I can say that the Fine Arts Building houses the last remaining manually operated elevators in the city of Chicago, and riding up to the studio space in one definitely put me on the right foot for watching the show. Walking off the antique elevator down the corridor in such an old, beautiful building feels like stepping out of the real world, a great place to start when seeing live theater.

One of my favorite things about Chicago theatre is that I think we have a really fantastic small theater scene. Amazing work is being done by small companies in attics and storefronts all over the city, not just in the large downtown houses. Part of what got me into writing reviews was being able to a shine a light on that, so, I’m happy to be able to do that for this show. Anchored by a strong lead, Squeamish was by turns creepy and intriguing and would be a great part of a night out this June.

Recommended

Reviewed by Kevin Curran

Presented through June 22 by Bump in the Night Theater at Fine Arts Building, Little Studio, 410 S Michigan Ave, Suite 732, Chicago.

Tickets can be purchased here.

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