*** I am always “up” for work that is different, and enjoy doing whatever I can for the little theater companies, as they work their magic. The Tin  Drum Theatre Company, one of these smaller troupes, has a Chicago premiere on the stage at The Greenhouse Theater Center on Lincoln Avenue. If you are unfamiliar with this center, it is the original Victory Gardens location at 2257 N. Lincoln Avenue, and it has been updated and remodeled inside to add additional stages so newer companies have a place to put on their plays. Thank you, Greenhouse management!

The production onstage in the “studio” is titled “A Dark Wood” written by Eric Coble. It is a fairly dark story that is done in one very long act, yet it is called a three-act story. This is a bit misleading, so understand that this is in fact a play that runs about 105 minutes with no intermission. It begins with the three main characters having fun with each other. There is a boy and his two sisters. The boy is named or called Earthworm ( well played by Renzo Vicente) and the younger sister is Hummingbird ( Delaney Vallese), and last but not least, the older sibling is Armadillo ( Marlee Feacher).

The world is in shambles and “the fix” has been started with its intent to correct all that has gone wrong with the country. The three siblings, having been separated, must each find their own way and tell their own story, and that is what Coble has done. The first story involves Earthworm and his tent-mate, Montrose ( Carlos Andres Mai), who are living in what appears to be a Tent City ( homeless folks, just surving with hopes of finding happiness again). Their act is called Inferno and is broken into many little scenes dealing with their hope of being called to cross into “the promised land” where all will be good again.

The second act is called Purgatorio and involves Hummingbird and her mentor Miss Vivian ( played to perfection by Shannon Leigh Webber), who is teaching her and offering Hummingbird a sort of mother figure, but later finds out that all is not what it appears to be as we meet Dipper ( Raul Alonso) who seems to be in control of all those that are around him.

The third story is that of Armadillo, who is a police officer and is called Paradiso, taking place at the Pearly Gates. This is a soliloquy, as she talks of her duties and her search for justice and forgiveness for the things she was forced to do as “the fix” went into effect. Under the direction of Steve Needham on a clverly designed set by Will Hughes, I found myself more entranced with the first story, and involved with the second, but by the third, wondering exactly how they were going to meet each other at the end. Did any of them find the happiness they were seeking? Did they all meet up again in a new “paradise”? I guess, like “Waiting for Godot”, we will never know.

 

Presented by Tin Drum Theatre Company

“A Dark Wood” will continue Thru – Nov 1st with performances as follows: