“The Official Biography” reviewed by Frank Meccia

The Official Biography, written by Kurt McGinnis Brown and directed by Richard Shavzin, is currently playing in the upstairs mainstage at The Den Theatre, a venue well known for presenting smaller, often unconventional productions.

The stage design is simple but very functional. Set designer Garrett Bell creates the interior of a small, slightly dilapidated country home in rural Connecticut. The house belongs to Henry Percival, a reclusive novelist who spends most of his days drinking and trying—unsuccessfully—to write. He rarely gets beyond the first paragraph.
Percival is portrayed by Gary Houston, a seasoned actor with connections to the Goodman Theatre. Houston embodies the character with a striking presence—resembling a weathered Ernest Hemingway, complete with rugged white beard and worn, tattered clothing that suggests years of neglect.

Thirty  years earlier, Percival wrote a controversial novel that still haunts him. Readers have long wondered whether the book was truly fiction—or whether Percival actually killed the character who dies in the story. Into this isolated world enters Xan Smith, played by Shelby Marie Edwards, an actor-musician and solo performer trained at Chicago’s renowned Steppenwolf Theatre School. Xan arrives to write a short nonfiction piece about Percival for her husband’s publishing company.
Her entrance is intentionally confrontational. She appears as a self-righteous, politically charged black activist writer, and the audience immediately feels a sense of distrust toward her. Yet as the play unfolds, Xan slowly breaks through Percival’s gruff exterior. She convinces him to talk, to share stories, and eventually to let her read some of his writing.
Months later, when she returns with news that several universities have begun teaching his long-forgotten work again, Percival softens. Over a bottle of whiskey, the two begin forming an unlikely friendship.

Even Xan’s wardrobe ( costumes designed by  Mary Bonnett) reflects this shift. Her earlier radical style gradually gives way to polished business suits, signaling a transformation in both tone and intention. Eventually Percival reveals the truth about what really happened all those years ago.
Armed with this revelation, Xan secures significant financing for a book deal that could benefit them both. Percival himself begins to change—looking forward to her visits and even chasing curious onlookers away from his property.

For ninety minutes the play becomes an engaging game of cat and mouse, though the audience is never quite sure who is pursuing whom.
The technical elements deserve recognition as well. Garrett Bell’s set design effectively grounds the story in Percival’s lonely world, while Sam Bressler’s lighting design nicely captures the transitions from day to night.
However, one technical trend in modern theatre continues to puzzle me. Many productions now use fog or haze around stage lighting. While it may soften the look of the lights, I often find it distracting—and more than once I caught myself removing my glasses to clean them, thinking the haze was my own vision.

Still, these minor distractions do not diminish the strength of the production. The Official Biography builds steadily toward a dramatic and unexpected ending that leaves the audience reconsidering everything they thought they understood.In the end, The Official Biography proves to be a compelling psychological duel—a fascinating game of cat and mouse.
The only question left is: who is really the mouse?

Presented by Her Story Theatre at The Den Theatre located at 1331 N. Milwaukee Avenue in Chicago