“The Outsiders” – AROUND THE TOWN CHICAGO

** “The Outsiders” was a movie of which that many of us still have memories . The film is quite relatable as almost everyone at one time in their lives felt like they were an “ousider”. The Home Creative Company, an Elgin theatre company, that has opted to move to Chicago, to be where the theater action is, is now producing an adaptation of this film and book( Christopher Sergel), written by S. E. Hinton.

For those who did not see the film or read the book, the story is about Ponyboy ( Liam Pietrzk), who also serves as our narrator. He is being raised by his brother Darrel (Austin Kinser) along with his brother Sodapop (Jose Yantin junior). We are in Oklahoma back in the 1960’s and the youngsters are divided into gangs- the poor greasers and the rich “Socs” ( I think that may refer to upper crust society. The “Socs” beat up on the greasers and during this story, there is a time when the greasers take revenge.

Ponyboy has a few close buddies, Johnny ( deftly handled by Alexander Garcia, who went on today as the understudy) and Dallas (Brick Zurck is a powerful performer). Directed by Jonathan James on the studio stage at the Athenaeum Center in Chicago, I felt the production was somewhat choppy. It is difficult to take a film with several sets and convert that to a stage play. For example, when they go to the drive-in movie theater in the film, now it is a regular movie theater, or is it. The dialogue is confusing. Here, they meet some of the “Socs” girls- Cherry ( played to perfection by Jamie McCalister) and her friend Marcia ( Olivia Kaye Da Silva).

The scenes move quickly and often, it is hard to tell what is truly happening. Johnny’s parents fight all the time and he considers suicide in order to escape this life. At the park, they are beaten up, but it turns out that Johnny has a knife and kills one of the “Socs”. Dallas helps them to get away and they flee. Later, they return and find the church on fire. Ponyboy and Johnny run into the church to save the children ( this is seen in the movie). However, in the stage version, there are no women and children. The two characters are saved by Dallas and all three are taken to the hospital.

There is an ending that I would prefer not to give away, but I can tell you ( again, if you did not read the book or see the film) that the ending is both sad and happy- you will have to judge for yourselves. I think that this company took on a huge mission for their first Chicago production- one that is hard to do with any stage, but even harder on the studio of this venue. I will say that they have changed the chairs in the studio , making the seating far more comfortable.

I am hopeful that this company will look at staying here and doing more productions. The talent on stage was good, as were the technical aspects, in particular the fight sequences (Austin Kinser), but the play selected might have been a little bit adventurous for the first production.