Rabbit Hole

From: "will stackman" profwlll@yahoo.com

Subject: Quicktake - "Rabbit Hole" by David Lindsay-Abaire

Date:Wednesday, November 8, 2006

Quicktake on RABBIT HOLE

     There's no White Rabbit in David Lindsay-Abaire's "Rabbit Hole" or any of the fantasy audiences have come to expect from the author of "Fuddy Meers,", "Wonder of the World," or "Kimberly Akimbo." There is, however, the same insightful view of human nature, this time at a suburban housewife and her stock broker husband try to come to grips with the loss of their four-year old son. Of course, her younger sister, Izzy (short for Isabel) opens the play by telling her that she's pregnant by a "real" musician, her tipsy mother can't forget her brother who died of a heroine overdose, and her husband misses the dog. The setting is realistic, all their actions are predictable, though Becca, the heroine, played by Donna Bullock, does punch a woman in the supermarket. That unfortunate was ignoring her own child. Geneva Carr's Izzy is not as flighty as her wardrobe would suggest, and Maureen Anderman as their mother Natalie has unexpected depths. Even Howie, the husband, played by Jordan Lage, starts to relate to his wife on a more hopeful level by the end of the evening. It's a play, like most of the author's work, works up slowly to its point, this time with far fewer mirrors and almost no smoke.

     Predictably, the setting by James Noone is a monument to stagecraft, with three meticulous interiors that roll on and off. A two level unit set would have been less distracting and possibly more evocative. John Tillinger's low-key directing, and the cast's contemporary ensemble style are sufficient to establish the characters and their situation. The interior decoration is extraneous. Costumes, props, lighting, and sound are firstrate and more appropriate. Bullock leads the show with the same kind of detailed work that won Cynthia Nixon a Tony for her role. We know her and the rest of the cast quite well by the end of the play; where they've been, what they are, and where they might be going. Lindsay-Abaire's used everyday elements to tell a simple and moving tale, ending not with "happily ever after," but "they lived."

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"Rabbit Hole" by David Lindsay-Abaire, Nov.3 - Dec.3

Huntington Theatre Co. at B.U.Theatre

264 Huntington Ave, (617) 266 - 0800
HTC