Trying to piece it all together
Craig Lucas is an acclaimed playwright and screenwriter — his resume includes “Prelude to a Kiss,” works about the AIDS pandemic such as “Longtime Companion” and a Tony nomination for his “subtle libretto” in the Broadway hit “The Light in the Piazza.” One of his early plays, 1983’s quirky “Reckless,” is wild, unpredictable and often stupid. It’s a black comedy full of unlikely happenings and mostly unlikable people.
Nevertheless, “Reckless” is a popular choice for acting troupes. The Chautauqua Theater Company thought so and, in a reprise from its 1989 season, is presenting it through Sunday in its state-of-the-art Bratton Theatre, on the grounds of the Chautauqua Institution.
“Reckless” is hard to explain. Rachel lives a nice life; she’s comfortable, safe and happy with husband Tom. On a Christmas Eve, after Rachel has waxed poetic about the holiday and sharing and snow and Santa, Tom says: “I’ve put out a contract on you.”
Tom has second thoughts. He helps Rachel escape into the night, in her nightgown, where she is found by a passerby, Lloyd, who invites her to his home. Lloyd’s wife, Pooty, is a paraplegic who is also a deafmute — well, this is not true, but it is very complicated — but the couple is hospitable, so Rachel stays. And stays.
She gets a job. She settles in. Lloyd and Pooty — living lies, too — love her.
Tom finds Rachel — this after she wins a ton of money on a TV game show — only to have a champagne toast fatally poison himself and Pooty. Murder now joins brain damage, a bus accident, heart attack, debilitating diseases, mental illness, deadbeat dads and other issues.
It all gets sorted out, years later of course, and this is when you really wonder about Craig Lucas. Are these bizarre happenings all metaphors for something or other — Rachel, Candide-like, being bruised in a mean old world — or is the tale tied to Lucas’ real-life abandonment at birth, or is it all a dream or really a nightmare?
But it’s a play, and you’ll either like or hate “Reckless.” But, just when you are looking longingly toward the exits, Rachel says, in the midst of chaos, “I think we get our ideas from rock ’n’ roll songs.” Ah, Craig Lucas. He can save the night with lines like that.
The cast is great. The estimable Vivienne Benesch is Rachel, and she is wonderful — hyper, goofy, the only one, really, that you hope comes out of this. Terrific work.
Benesch is joined by Daniel Pierce, Andrew Weems, Shauna Miles, Kate Hurster, Ryan Garbayo and Carol Halstead, very good as several disparate psychoanalysts.
Matthew Arbour directs, and the evening is slickly high-tech, with fast-moving set pieces, innovative, color-splashed lighting and original music and sound; credit Narelle Sissons, Tyler Micoleau and Steve Cahill for all of that.
“Reckless” is surreal yet serious; not bad, not good. It’s two hours of puzzlement to ponder.
Theater Review
“Reckless”
★★★
Presented by Chautauqua Theater Company through Sunday at Chautauqua Institution. For more information, call 357-6250 or visit www.ctcompany.org.
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