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Abandonment
By Kate Atkinson
Directed by David Kropp
At The Actors Workshop Theatre
1044 W. Bryn Mawr
Chicago, IL
Call 773-728-7529, tickets $20 - $25
Thursdays thru Saturdays at 8 PM
Sundays at 3 PM
Running time is 2 hrs, 15 min with intermission
Through February 19, 2006
Abandonment is a passionate, fresh ghost story
Mounting a ghost story, especially one that moves from one time period (the present) to the Victorian era (1865) is a tricky enterprise to tackle on stage. It becomes even harder on The Actors Workshop Theatre’s small storefront stage. But under director David Kropp’s clever direction, Abandonment works nicely. British novelist, Kate Atkinson’s first play is part ghost story, part spoken novel, part exposition featuring interesting female characters from two time periods that eventually collide. Christopher Scholl’s set design aptly speaks Victorian mansion.
This Midwest Premiere Equity show is set in Canada and it parallels the story of two troubled women who inhabit the same house 140 years apart. The modern historian, Elizabeth (Rebekka James) comes from a dysfunctional family where the now deceased father abused the mother and where her half sister Kitty (Laura Jones-Macknin) acts out her pain by being promiscuous.
We see the angelic Agnes (Marisa Sanders), candle in had, haunt the present from her Victorian roots. She was a world traveler yearning to freedom and emancipation but settling for being a governess in an unloving family. The Victorian mansion ties the two women together. Each search for happiness and each fear abandonment.
Elizabeth was abandoned at birth and found in a men’s washroom. She is obsessed with finding her roots. She hires a “wood guy” to fix the woodworm, dry rot and deathwatch beetle in the house’s floors. The handyman, Callum (William J. Watt), is a New Age modern hippy type free spirit who reminds me of the guy who spent years painting Murphy Brown’s house in the TV show.
Add Susie (Kathy Holahan), Elizabeth’s lesbian best friend and a visit from Ina, Elizabeth and Kitty’s negative, nasty mother (Marssie Mencotti) and the family secrets slowly are revealed.
Director Kropp deftly moves from each era with splendid, quick blackouts. We see Elizabeth have her picture taken by the womanizer Alec (James D. Farruggio) and presto, flash of light, a blackout and we’re back in 1865 with the Alec becoming Merrick, the womanizing husband of the house’s owner, Laetitia (Laura Jones-Macknin). Only Marisa Sanders (Agnes) and Rebekka James (Elizabeth) play one character. All others smartly move from modern to Victorian with appropriate dress and period accent.
Abandonment is a modern drama with mystery elements, part Gothic romance dealing with love and loss, grief and joy, time and space as parallel characters and storylines interweave seamlessly until they collide. Precision staging and quick pacing keeps the tension mounting.
Playwright Atkinson’s work is heavy on ideas and exposition both with modern subjects such as Chaos Theory, Genetic Design, Karma and Animal Spiritualism in a witty, funny discourse. Add the Victorian discussion of rationalism, scientific discovery, evolution and atheism, historic determinism with Victorian spiritualism and we learn much of the prevailing ideas from each era.
The dominant theme of abandonment ties each character together as we experience their angst as they struggle to live in the present and let go of past incidents that still haunt them.
This is a finely constructed work, filled with intelligent, empathetic characters bound up in a enticing mystery worthy of a modern ghost story. Laura Jones-Macknin, Rebekka James and Marisa Sanders highlight a terrific cast.
Abandonment is an ambitious blend of modern drama and Victorian mystery that delivers sophisticated entertainment. You’ll like this passionate, vibrant play.
Recommended
Tom Williams
Tom99@chicagocritic.com for comments
This show is eligible for a C.S.T. Equity Theatre Award
January 18, 2006
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