“The House Of Yes”

Somewhat Recommended**Hubris Productions has changed their “mission statement”. They now state that they are ” A scrappy group of seriously snarky proudly immature semi-grown-ups, who present life as reflected in a black box. We move you to think, to act and to give a damn, and be proud of it!” To be honest, I liked who they were before. I still like the fact that a portion of the revenue they take in goes to areas of concern, but feel that is they do productions like their current “The House of Yes’, they will bring in smaller amounts and therefore not be able to give back as much as they would like to.

I was impressed with the set as I entered the Studio of The Greenhouse Theater Center. Jacob Christopher Green did a masterful job of using this small stage to give us the feeling of a home, using multi levels so that we could see the living room and one of the bedrooms where some of the action takes place in this 90 minute ( no intermission tale). Mr. Green also designed the costumes and Directed the production. Perhaps he took on a bit more than one should for this particular show.The story is about a very dysfunctional family, one that had wealth at one time, but over the years finds themselves living a different life.Mrs. Pascal, the mother ( played by Patti Feinstein, who handles dry comedy with great skill) has three children; Anthony ( Jason Dabrowski) who is a college drop-out and lives at home. Also living at home is daughter Jacki-O, played by the lovely Jessica Maynard) who has mental problems that as the play goes on become even larger than one might expect. It is Thanksgiving, during a hurricane and son, Marty, Jacki-O’s twin arrives for the family fetsivities with his fiancee ( no one has heard anything about her) from New York. Leslie ( Patricia Moy) who know very little about this “crazy” family.

Mother is unhappy with Leslie. Jackie-O hates Leslie! brother Anthony is in love with Leslie and Leslie is confused about this family that she is about to become a memebr of. While well acted for the most part, the story is a bit shaky in what the point might be. Most of what happened to this family took place on the day that JFKtook that last ride in Dallas. I don’t want to give you all the details , but this play deals with incest, druf and alcohol problems, sexual identity and all of this takes place on a Thanksgiving Day in a terrible storm with no power and so no turkey. Wendy MacLeod, the playwright has some great lines in this story and some marvelous characters, but I felt that the story itself was incomplete and that the direction has some major holes in it, possibly because the theater is so small and intimate that there were less places to have the action take place than if on a larger stage.

I honestly can say that this is the first let down I have seen from this troupe. They have given us some wonderful, well done productions in the past and perhaps, they will revisit their mission and change it to give us quality stories  that will cause us to think, act and care. Wouldn’t that be nice! “The House of Yes” will continue at The Greenhouse Theater Center located at2257 N. Lincoln Avenue through April 28th with performances as follows:

Thursdays,Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays ( except for Easter, no show) at 3 p.m.

Tickets are $25 and it is general admission so first come first served on seating.Because the back wall of the theater is on Lincoln Avenue, from time to time, people on the street can become loud enough to cause hearing problems, so be aware that the sounds are not part of the production, but there are gunshots in the play. To order your seats  call 773 404-7336, visit www.greenhousetheater.org and to learn more about this young company, www.hubrisproductions.com