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Orphans
By Lyle Kessler
Directed by Tom Reedy
Produced by RiMeChi Theatre Company
At City Lit Theatre
1020 W. Bryn Mawr
Chicago, IL
Call 312-324-0362, tickets $15
Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 PM
Sundays at 3 PM
Running time is 1 hour 45 minutes with intermission
Through September 9, 2006
“Let me give you some encouragement.” Harold from Orphans
Orphans is a marvelous off-beat fable
Lyle Kessler’s 1985 black comedy/psychological drama, first mounted at Steppenwolf Theatre and filmed in 1987, has seldom been produced locally. Kudos to the newly formed RiMeChi Theatre Company for tackling the terse, physically and emotionally draining work. Orphans is in good hands with these players. Richard Leo Madison (Phillip), Seth Remington (Treat) and John Arthur Lewis (Harold) gave stellar performances in Keller’s raw fable of three dysfunctional losers struggling to survive in a lonely, frightful world. We see how men without women in their lives resort to their primal instincts. This is a major achievement as an initial offering. Orphans is wonderfully acted and is an emotionally wrenching piece.
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Treat and Phillip were orphaned early in life and Treat was institutionalized for attacking a social worker. Now the two live in a shabby North Philadelphia house that finds Phillip confined as agoraphobic to the house where he spends his days watching TV and hiding in his deceased mother’s closet. Phillip is a likeable, wide-eyed innocent and is played with charm, warmth and a cute comic bent by Richard Leo Madison.
Treat is the mean, rage full older brother who desperately needs to be in control of the ‘family’ (meaning Phillip) since the early abandonment still has him producing violent tantrums. Treat alternates between being cruel and manipulative and friendly and nurturing to Phillip. Treat does feed Phillips paranoia of the outside world as the ultimate control method. Treat doesn’t want Phillip to educate himself. Seth Remington gave a tour de force performance as the raging thug ready to explode. Treat supports the family by robbing (at knife point) pedestrians on the street. His rages cause him to cut many a victim. When he brings home Harold (John Arthur Lewis in a smoothly commanding performance), a drunken businessman with a briefcase full of stock certificates who Treat wants to kidnap for ransom, the family’s life is altered for good.
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Harold, himself an orphan from Chicago quickly decides to become a father figure to Phillip and Treat. He offers psychological support and confidence to Phillip. He also hires Treat as his body guard and he tries to mentor Treat in an attempt to makes him into a less angry and more genteel criminal. The play is cleverly written and marvelously directed. It emerges as part sentimental idealism, part gangster comedy with strong psychological undertones. The scene where Harold has Phillip role-play being a Black man hogging as seat on a bus as Treat tries to gently persuade him to move over was hilarious. Treat never learned the lesson of patience.
The father-son relationship between Harold and Phillip and Treat was humorously and effective presented as also the pains of growing up without parents were deftly defined. This is a black comedy fable with heart as we see the three lost souls struggling like the Dead End Kids to survive. The need to be needed and the power of physical touch are aptly demonstrated. You’d be hard pressed to find more energetic and, at times, physically manic acting than these three performers deliver in this off beat terrific show. Nice work guys.
Highly Recommended
Tom Williams
Tom99@chicagocritic.com for comments
Talk Theatre in Chicago podcast
Date Reviewed: August 3, 2006
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