"ARIADNE’S THREAD" at Victory Gardens Theater
BY LUCIA MAURO
Marking the most pronounced departure from her lushly crafted period dramas ("And Neither Have I Wings to Fly," "The Boarding House"), Chicago playwright Ann Noble’s contemporary comedy, "Ariadne’s Thread," seems to have gotten its creative wires crossed.
Consisting almost entirely of inter-connected telephone conversations among seven disparate women, Noble’s latest work – receiving its world premiere at Victory Gardens Theater – does not feel like a play at all. It’s more of a live dramatized version of a pilot for a sitcom (one of Noble’s admitted goals for the script). So instead of multifaceted characters and an intricately developed story line, we’re left with a treatment for TV types and ideas for future episodes. And the telecommunications conceit, while clever, serves as something of a worn gimmick to draw us into the work’s many implausible hook ups.
Yet buried beneath the dial tones and busy signals lies the potential for a substantial and topical story. Noble’s rigid phone structure, however, boxes her in. Hints of intriguing ideas get stymied by their invasive cellular surrounds.
The play’s interlocking stories stretch across Chicago, New York and London. They involve twin sisters Wendy and Lea – the former a sexually confused scholar specializing in ancient goddesses; the latter an irresponsible and lost soul in the midst of a divorce. Their skirt-chasing father (divorced from their mother) is about to marry a British woman, whose daughter -- literary critic Gareth -- opposes the match.
Meanwhile, the twins’ half-sister – the impossibly chirpy and optimistic nurse Connor – gets married, and certain liaisons form at her wedding. Wendy meets Joan, a lesbian literary agent, who represents the sexually ambiguous Anderson, an author of feminist erotica (aggressively panned by critic Gareth). Time passes, and Connor moves to New York, gets pregnant and laments her husband’s excessive business trips.
Wendy and Joan nudge closer to a relationship. But, during Wendy’s father’s wedding, the classics scholar plunges into a one-night stand with Gareth’s brother and winds up pregnant. Another pregnancy arises after Niki – a mixed-up young Broadway performer -- marries Joan’s roguish father/commercial producer. But Niki really longs for Connor’s brother, Justin, whom she dumped in order to get her name in lights. These complications – which are really quite shallow – lead up to a groaning jigsaw-puzzle ending in which two antagonistic characters find out that they are related.
"Ariadne’s Thread" becomes a series of forced contrivances. The women are the most glaring of types. And, most problematic, the unseen men are a bunch of callous cads and self-absorbed louts. Noble goes so far as to have one of the more sympathetic male characters die. And as far as Joan is concerned, all men are "maggots" – a term that long overstays its welcome.
I was actually interested in Wendy’s and Joan’s story. It could be its own play minus the cumbersome phone trappings. I was intrigued by the ambiguity of the relationship and Wendy’s dilemma once she gets pregnant. At least the way Noble writes the invisible Andrew character, he does pursue Wendy even though she continues to evade him. This saga could unfold into a child custody battle involving Andrew and Joan.
But it merely gets cut short by all the extraneous characters – from skanks to goody two-shoes to a Broadway diva and uptight Brit -- breaking in on their lines. On the subject of uptight Brit, Gareth represents the most dated English stereotype I’ve ever seen march across the stage in heavy tweed and sensible shoes. There’s also no burning reason why Gareth has to be from the U.K. anyway.
Director Sandy Shinner has gathered together Chicago’s most multidimensional actresses in a sturdy and fluid production. The script, however, can be substantially cut (running time is currently at two-and-a-half hours). Jenny McKnight believably taps into Wendy’s torn anguish, but the play often reduces her to a blathering, bawling mess. Julia Neary, an actress of great range, is stuck with the predictable role of the trampish Lea but undergoes a touching transformation.
Tyla Abercrumbie’s Joan serves as the play’s grounded and moral center, yet she relies heavily on an abrupt-deadpan delivery that hems her in. Mary Kathryn Bessinger solidly tackles the woefully under-developed Anderson. Joey Honsa, a gifted comedienne, wins our hearts as the sappy Connor. She also lends a dimension of deep-seated rage to her character, which is quite arresting. Laura Jones Macknin endows the cliched Gareth with an admirable dignity. The charismatic Nambi E. Kelley, however, gets saddled with the problematic role of airhead/braggart Niki – a part that seems to have been written for its quirky sex appeal.
Mythological and modern dysfunction collide in "Ariadne’s Thread," but Noble has not yet figured out a way to guide her intersecting story lines and characters out of this confounding dramatic labyrinth.ª
"Ariadne’s Thread" runs through October 27 at Victory Gardens Theater, 2257 N. Lincoln. Tickets: $30-$35. Call 773-871-3000 or log onto www.victorygardens.org.
