“Revolution” reviewed by Jacob Davis

*****  It’s hard to make new friends as you get older. That’s true in a lot of people’s experience, at least, including for the characters in Brett Neveu’s play Revolution, now in its world premiere at A Red Orchid Theatre. The play is a slice of life depicting people with rather unglamorous existences on the occasion of a birthday that, while not the gateway to middle age, is not exactly welcome. But just when they had resigned themselves to their unchallenging small pleasures, two people take a chance by interacting with someone new. The result is a play that is uproariously funny, often deeply sad, and, as the birthday-girl would say, wrapped around little kernels of darkness in which we find truth.
Puff (Stephanie Shum) is the newly appointed manager of the titular hair salon. There’s nobody she particularly wants to spend her birthday with other than her work-friend and now subordinate, Jame (Taylor Blim), and nowhere she particularly wants to go outside of the back alley. They raise the possibility of getting drinks at a Rainbow Café, something they have never done before, but Puff often suffers from anxiety, which is being exacerbated by her new position. While she had told herself she wouldn’t let that get the best of her today, risking money seems a step too far. (Jame offers to pay, but Puff knows how much she makes.) Just as Jame decides to make the best of it in the alley after Puff refuses her gentle coaxing, they exchange greetings with Georgia (Natalie West), an older woman who works in the nearby mall whom they only knew by sight. Georgia is a bit more curious about their apparent plan for a party in the alley than is necessary for perfunctory politeness, and Puff finds this just odd enough to be interesting without being frightening, so she invites Georgia to join them. It turns out that Georgia has hors d’oeuvres in her car, and as they get to talking, they remarkably hit it off.
Neveau’s writing, the direction of Travis A. Knight, and the trio of actresses who make up the play’s ensemble all come together for ninety minutes that truly feel magical. Granted, Puff and Georgia have been to therapy, so Neveau has justified writing some of their lines in a way that demonstrates that they’re accustomed to explicating their inner monologues and thinking with critical distance about themselves. But the intensity with which they bond is fully believable, while being the kind of thing that only happens rarely and usually at transitions in life that seem like they would be of greater significance. Puff and Georgia share a love for Looney Tunes’ deceptively dark sense of humor as well as a deep existential dread and aimlessness. From Shum and Blim’s interactions it is apparent that Puff and Jame are comfortable with and care for each other, but Jame is often in the position of having to coddle the woman who has just become her boss, which is a serious shake-up for their friendship even if they’re not admitting it. Add to it the low-key awkwardness that this is actually the best Jame’s life has ever been, which makes Puff more self-conscious about complaining, and we understand from just some mundane and subtle dialogue why they needed a third friend.
Shum and Blim’s performances are brilliant, but West excels at an even more challenging character. Georgia is possibly neurodivergent, feels extremely lonely and rejected since her husband’s new church has essentially caused him to stop loving her, and she struggles to recognize the difference between good and bad teasing. Rather than being somebody whose life never really started, she’s someone who just stopped at a certain point, and she has now been at her mall job for nine years. Even so, she was the first one to reach out and recognize something amazing in the people who had been part of her routine’s background. Revolution is similar to Annie Baker’s The Aliens, which A Red Orchid mounted ten years ago, and people who like that will probably like this, but it comes with some important post-pandemic shading. Neveu’s play shows how just because life paused doesn’t mean it has to stay that way, as long as people are still willing to take risks and reach out to each other. The play is only ninety minutes long, but it feels like a whole evening spent with good friends.
Revolution will continue at A Red Orchid Theatre, 1531 N Wells St, Chicago, thru October 29, with the following showtimes:

Thursdays: 7:30 pm
Fridays: 7:30 pm
Saturdays: 3:00 pm and 7:30 pm
Sundays: 3:00 pm
Running time is ninety minutes with no intermission.
Ticket prices start at $35. Student, senior, and group discounts available. To order, visit ARedOrchid.org or call 312-943-8722.
To see what others are saying, visit www.theatreinchicago.com, go to Review Round-Up and click “Revolution.”