Howdy. Sorry to be getting to this so late in the weekend. I’ve just seen off my weekend guest and am more convinced than ever that guests are a wonderful thing. Not only is my apartment cleaner than usual; not only did I enjoy the considerable pleasure of my friend’s company; on top of all that, I doubt I would have caught either Art Chicago in the Park or the Chicago production of Lisa Loomer’s play Living Out at American Theater Company (in collaboration with Teatro Vista) if she hadn’t visited.
We had a good time at Art Chicago. I spent a lot more time looking at old-guard work (Marin, Cornell, Frankenthaler, Hockney) than new, and I admit to being surprised and feeling a little shortchanged when we ran out of exhibits just as it felt like we were warming up. It says here that the show is indeed smaller and less spectacular than it used to be (thanks to Iconoduel for the link). But the weekender and I used the remainder of the afternoon to take the full tour of Millennium Park, sans bean, sad to say–“Cloud Gate” is still under wraps from the winter, having its seams welded out. With clouds rife in the sky and the light changing rapidly, it would have been a great day to watch the weather reflected in the steel. Through what I hope is the tail end of the cover-up, we piners for the bean can console ourselves with this revealing photo essay about its construction.
The part of Millennium Park I still can’t figure out is the part that seems to be a jail for trees. Were they bad? Are they eligible for parole? The Park website is only partly illuminating on this topic–it says that the metal framework hemming in the trees is the “Armature,” which “provides a simple and permanent clipping guide for precisely maintaining the curved profile of the mature Shoulder Hedge” and, more mystifyingly still, “also pre-figures the Hedge form.” Um, whatever they say. But I can’t help waiting for the day when some arboreal activist sets the poor trees free–they truly do look miserable.
After a little late-afternoon wine, potato chips, and napping, we struck out again and met up with my friend the Law Prof and his weekend guest for dinner and the play. Both guests were attorneys, and a little way into the play it was clear that there’s no more receptive audience for the lawyer humor that pervades Living Out than a lot of self-deprecating lawyers. This element of the play merely picked up a thread that my companions had gotten going at dinner.
We liked the play, which I picked because it was a Critic’s Choice in the Chicago Reader, but more so because I remembered Terry’s rave review for the Journal when it premiered in New York in 2003. Lisa Loomer’s play follows the intertwined fortunes of two young mothers in Southern California who are employer and employee. Ana is an immigrant from El Salvador raising one child and trying to get a second to the States. Nancy is a Hollywood entertainment lawyer who hires Ana as a nanny for her newborn so she can return to work. Both are well-meaning, and as Terry’s review emphasized, the heart of the play is the friendship they almost find despite the yawning gulf of privilege and opportunity dividing them. It’s a sobering story, holding out the possibility of connection over this gulf, but holding it just out of reach.
The actors in the ATC production are very good, especially Sandra Marquez in the most important role as Ana. Her colleagues do well too, but there were a few times during the performance I saw when Marquez single-handedly saved a joke with her funny, knowing expressions. I found some of the jokes targeting yuppies too easy by half, especially those aimed at Nancy’s doofus Legal-Aid-type husband. Luckily, actor Thomas Gebbia tackles the part with enough gusto to carry some of the lamer jokes by sheer force of spastic energy. After Marquez’s, though, the most enchanting performance comes from Tanya Saracho as a Mexican nanny whom Anna befriends; Saracho’s character Sandra has a monologue in the second act about a trip to Texas–a beautifully written speech, funny and heartbreaking–that she sends soaring out of the park. (The still here captures a little bit of the exhilaration of her delivery. I haven’t looked at the clips, but presumably one of them shows part of this speech.)
Living Out has performances scheduled through May 22. Get your tickets here.