“The Wolves”

[rating=3] As someone who has spent many years around soccer, in particular, girl’s/women’s soccer, watching the Chicago premiere of Sarah DeLappe’s “The Wolves”, brought back some detailed memories of the days when my daughter played the game- on both house leagues and travel teams. While my son also was very involved, there is a major difference in the girl’s teams, and in fact, the girls themselves. This 90 minute production, which takes place on a practice field next to the actual field, allows us to meet the females of the team known as “The Wolves”.

These are not just players, allowing us to watch them do their work-outs and prepare for “battle”, but they represent the female navigating life itself. Yes, they wage their own little battles, fighting for playing time, in hopes that some college or university coach will spot them and take them “full-boat” away from their current life, allowing them to become stars! They all have secrets of their own, and during these 90 minutes ( the actual time it takes to play a real “football” game), we learn about each of the spirited young ladies who compose “The Wolves”.

The characters have no actual names, but do have numbers on their jerseys. The team goaltender is 00 (Angela Alise) who has some nerve problems causing her to vomit on a fairly regular basis.FYI-never onstage, always running off. The rest of the team is composed of #25 ( Isa Arciniegas), #2 (the quirky Taylor Blim), #14 ( the sarcastic Aurora Real De Asua), #7 (Natalie Joyce), #8 (the adorable Cydney Moddy), #46 (the mysterious Erin O’Shea), #11 ( deftly handled by Sarah Price) and #13 (Mary Tidlen). The rest of the cast is the Soccer Mom played by Meighan Grerachis, who comes in for the next to last scene, and honestly is not needed to complete the story.

While the acting is powerful and these ladies have either played some soccer in their youth or are great athletes, the story is lacking on details and as happens in many cases, young female actors tend to speak too softly  making it hard for us to stay with the storyline that DeLappe has developed. Director Vanessa Stalling has captured the feeling of the script and has woven the members of the team into a true group of individuals, each with their own “story”, but who also play well as a team! While some of the girls were okay with their skills, it was fairly noticeable that  Ms O’Shea was a skilled soccer player. Her ball control was amazing and reminded me of the skill I see on my granddaughters travel team- she truly had it!

“The Wolves” in many ways is a “coming of age” play, in which all of these young ladies make adjustments to their lives, present and future, and learn from their past as to project where they are headed. Is this an amazing story? Is this a “must-see” play? It is neither, but it is a different type of production and one that bears seeing for the quality of the performances of these fine and very athletic actresses. The theater has been re-designed to be an indoor soccer field ( (Collette Pollard) with astro-turf, plexiglass, nets, fans, fluorescents and feels as if you could play a game. Noel Huntzinger’s costumes were probably pretty easy- soccer uniforms can be purchased almost everywhere, but they looked professional. Keith Parham’s lighting was special, in particular at scene changes and the sound and music (Mikhail Fiksel) as always is right on.

The props were mainly soccer items and water bottles and for this production, added staff: Soccer Skill Building Coach ( not often seen in a theater program) Katie Berkopec; Soccer Captain: Isa Arciniegas ( she is of course the second actress that showed some prowess on the court) and there was even an audition Soccer Consultant, Angela Staveskie, who was probably needed to refresh the memories of those who had not played in a while and to teach soccer to those who may never have played on a team or in a league. Great work!

“The Wolves” will continue in The Owen Theater of The Goodman Thru March 11th with performances as follows:

Show Type: Drama

Box Office: 312-443-3800

www.goodmantheatre.org

Tickets range from $10- $47

Accessibilty performances

Touch Tour 3/4 at 2 p.m.

Audio Described  3/4 at 2 p.m.

ASL 3/10 at 2 p.m.

Open captioned  3/11  2 p.m.

visit http://www,GoodmanTheatre.org/Accessfor more info

The theater is located at 170 N. Dearborn Street

To see what others are saying, visit www.theatreinchicago.com, go to Review Round-Up and click at “The Wolves”