Review: Steppenwolf's VISITING EDNA is an Emotional Lesson in Dealing with Loss

Plays that deal with a terminal illness are tough. The storytelling can be tricky as each audience member comes to it with varying degrees of personal impact. In Visiting Edna, currently making its world premiere at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, cancer is an actual character who gives voice to its own experience. Mostly clever, this device (along with an actor playing a television and another an angel), provides an interesting point of view in this lengthy tale.

We meet terminally ill Edna (an engaging Debra Monk) who has recently returned from a birthday trip where both her children threw her celebrations. She is elated from traveling first class to other parts of the country. Now she is eagerly anticipating her son Andrew's (Ian Barford) arrival for a short visit. During their time together, we learn more about the family's past, their losses, and varying levels of abuse from parents to children. Playwright David Rabe seems to imply that there is more to the distance we sometimes see between mother and son. We never fully never understand what that is even after scenes filled with extensive dialogue.

This is the biggest challenge with Visiting Edna. While we learn a great deal about the two main characters (there are some lengthy monologues with different degrees of satisfaction) but are left to draw our own conclusions. For the audience I sat with on Saturday afternoon, there were mixed reactions at intermission and at the end. For me, I found the ride interesting, at other times challenging, but worth a look if you're are a fan of Rabe and especially of Monk.

Rabe has crafted a lovely character for Monk to play. We see all sides of Edna as she relates to her son, her friends and neighbors, and her own disease. Monk's performance is finely tuned with such honesty that your heart breaks for her in her weakness. When she expresses any kind of regret for past behavior, you see a woman who is trying to make peace with this world before she's gone. Monk's performance made it all worth it for me.

As Andrew, Barford's best moments come late in the play, when we see the bottled emotions emerge from within the outwardly collected family man. His first of two final monologues, which felt more like an ending to me, show a son wrought with mixed emotions about his upbringing and the role his parents played in his life.

Sally Murphy is tasked with playing "television." She tackles the role (even an awkward monologue at the top of the show to explain it) with quirkiness and on the dime changes that make for a nice distraction. As Cancer, Tim Hopper is every bit as sneaky and aloof as you would imagine the disease would be. In an odd dream segment, Michael Rabe is an angel who comes to take Edna with him. This jarring scene feels unnecessary and breaks the momentum of the second act. It takes a little time to recover.

Once you do, Edna's journey is filled with waves of hope and despair. Rabe's dialogue is filled with grounded stories that make these characters relatable and feel like people we all know. By weaving in an alternate reality of sorts, we are allowed to escape with these folks to see where their minds are even in their personal moments.

David Zinn's set is very genuine and adds visuals to the weight of Edna's solitary life. Under the direction of Artistic Director, Anna Shapiro, the show can feel stagnate at times. But given the scenario and a large amount of dialogue, the staging does allow the focus to be on the words and moments.

Visiting Edna may not be for everyone. The storytelling is sincere with interesting devices woven into it. But some may find it unsatisfying and want to know more about the relationship that mother and son once had and have now. For me, the visit was worth the trip, but I too would have appreciated a bit more resolution.

Visting Edna runs through November 6th. Curtain Times are Tuesdays through Sundays at 7:30pm; Saturday and Sunday matinees at 3pm; Wednesday matinees at 2pm on October 19, October 26, and November 2. For tickets call 312-335-1650 or visit steppenwolf.org.

To post a comment, you must register and login.