How to Disappear… “Do Not Miss!” - Chicago Stage Review
Dec 19, 2009 in Reviews
CLOSING WEEKEND - DO NOT MISS!
By Venus Zarris
Mary-Arrchie Theatre Co. delivers a powerfully captivating Midwest Premiere of How To Disappear Completely And Never Be Found. This high-strung story of an ad agent on the edge creates an evening of tense theater as only Mary-Archie can realize.
Charlie’s life is rapidly imploding. Work is overwhelming, exacerbated by an ever-increasing coke habit. When he is found to be embezzling from his company to pay for his vices, flight seems to be the best option. But how does one escape from their life? Can we really disconnect from a life so completely connected to everything and everyone around us?
Playwright Fin Kennedy has crafted a clever machination of a man on the brink of self-destruction. The characters are compelling. The dialogue is wonderful, peppered with profundity and humor in the midst of existential desperation but the pacing and construct of the script seem better suited for the screen, rather than the stage. Although the impact is strongly felt in the theater, the scenes feel more cinematically presentational.
Once again Scenic Designer William Anderson dazzles the Angel Island stage with a staggering creation. The tension and dizzying anxiety of the story is felt before the actors take their first marks. Dialect Coach Kathy Logelin works wonders with the entire ensemble to create a fluid and organic verbal consistency.
Director Richard Cotovsky extracts ever morsel of tension from the script and every bit of skill from his extraordinarily bright and gifted cast. Assembling one of the year’s strongest ensembles, Cotovsky creates a suffocating psychological reality. This is complex dramatic territory and the actors inhabit it with a seemingly effortless ease.
Scott Danielson and Kristina Johnson stand out in the exceptional ensemble with strong control of their multiple peripheral characters. Carlo Lorenzo Garcia creates Charlie, our anti-hero on the brink of self-imposed oblivion, with subtle intensity that adds genuine vulnerability and depth to his personal crisis. But it is Kevin Stark that transcends the already engaging reality of the play as Mike, the instructional grifter who tutors Charlie in the ways of disappearing.
Stark is naturally idiosyncratic, frenetic and calm, a master of the believably odd and understatedly unusual. He is pragmatic and compassionate. He is dethatched and human. His character is an architect of contrivance but his humor is in the moment and irreverent. This is a part that could be easily overplayed but Stark is a genius of subtlety and a dramatic wonder to watch.
In the midst of this dark tale of alimentation and despondency we are given one of life’s most precious lessons as Mike tells Charlie, “Enjoy the little things, cause that’s where the magic is.” Mary-Arrchie’s How To Disappear Completely And Never Be Found is no little thing, no small accomplishment, but it is where magic can be found.
3 ½ STARS
(”How To Disappear Completely And Never Be Found ” runs through December 20 at Angel Island, 735 W. Sheridan. 773-871-0442.)
CLOSING WEEKEND - DO NOT MISS!
Mary-Arrchie Theatre Co. - www.maryarrchie.com
How To Disappear Completely And Never Be Found production photos by Ryan Bourque.
