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Regional Reviews: St. Louis Eat Your Heart Out Also see Richard's review of Reality
Katie Donnelly is Evie, a girl with the eating problem, but so many other problems swirl around her on stage that it takes an hour before the first shocking instance where the first two separate worlds collide. Ms. Barron's writing keeps all the story lines from becoming merely gimmicky—partly because each scene has some wistful or painful (or funny) little "upturn" at the end, keeping us willingly entranced. And partly because you just know that somehow, they must all be connected. Ann Marie Mohr is once again cast as the hard-nosed mom, though (this time) she's also beautifully lonely—and at wit's end. If you also saw her in The Trivia Job here in town, you'll know she can be great as an exasperated, tormented, and even controlling parent. But here she gets a lot more headroom to play with, and makes it all into our emotional carnival. There is a (nearly invisible) genre of plays and movies that seem to rely on one woman "telling off" another woman on stage as the great payoff of the whole drama. Here, with Ms. Mohr and Michelle Hand (also formerly of The Trivia Job), the great "telling off" scene is so absolutely fraught with emotional contradictions and guilt and a very modern sense of defeat for both women, that it's much more than we've come to expect from so-called "women's stories." Give director William Whitaker credit for all the thunderheads of nuance, too. And, surprisingly, the women's face-off is not the only dramatic payoff in store. Steve Peirick is awkward, funny, and even oddball as the man Ms. Mohr meets through a dating website, and Eric Dean White is the husband (of Ms. Hand) who gamely perseveres through a high-stress evening with an adoption agent. And Mr. White shines with irony and astonishment when the rules change, mid-game. Casey Boland is the new kid in town (Pasadena, California), a transplant in his senior year of high school, who befriends Ms. Donnelly in some very difficult straits. In settling-in to life on the west coast, a relationship he left behind in New Hampshire becomes unexpectedly traumatic for him, allowing Mr. Boland to till his own ten acres of heartache. For every one of Courtney Baron's characters, there's so much spontaneous soul-baring that it's not exceptionally shocking when Ms. Donnelly finally bares (nearly) all in a fitting room, to confront the excruciating subject of teenagers and body image. An outstanding show that, if told straightforwardly, would still be compelling and powerful. But in this broken-up (and possibly, at times, non-sequential) structure, with perfect vignette-style writing, it all seems quite strange and unearthly as we linger in suspense. In that kaleidoscopic flow, it's as if we had come back from 1,000 years in the future: to see many grueling, everyday things anew, that we'd otherwise take for granted. Through December 14, 2014, at the Chapel, 6238 Alexander Drive, immediately west of the impressive white stone church on Skinker Blvd., just south of Washington University. Boiler problems downstairs made for a chilly feeling inside the chapel theater on this particular night, so be advised. For more information visit www.r-stheatrics.com. Cast: Production Staff: * Denotes Membership Candidate, Actors Equity Association
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