BWW Reviews: SHIFTING GEARS Is High Octane Drama

Richard Warren's Shifting Gears is an intelligent and poignant portrait of an American family in transition. Played out on the stage of Theater Works and astutely directed by Daniel Schay, it is a poignant and stirring reminder of our vulnerability and humanity in the face of forces, generational and otherwise, beyond our control. The velocity of change does not allow much time to linger in idle. We are in either drive or reverse, advancing to an uncertain future holding on to the seductive past.

Mr. Warren's rearview mirror captures a fleeting moment ~ the Summer of 1961 ~ when America's generation gap widened and the country's past clashed with its future. After the Bay of Pigs fiasco and before the escalation in Vietnam. After the headiness of victory in World War II and in the early days of JFK's ill-fated presidency. After the second World War yielded the age of affluence which in turn unleashed the forces of rising expectations and aspiration for civil rights, world peace, and humanitarian aid.

Imagine now these various pushes and pulls embodied in the dynamics of the single family that Mr. Warren has assembled for our bird's eye view. Gathering together in the family cabin (authentically rustic in design, thanks to Brett Aiken and the generosity of Cabela's) on holiday weekends (Memorial Day, the 4th of July, and Labor Day) in the span of a single Summer, the fabric of the family flag comes undone perhaps so that it can be rewoven in to a different but sturdier cloth.

Frank Gaxiola (Henry) delivers a stirring portrayal of a father fundamentally committed to the centrality of family and unyielding in his efforts to retain control of the uncontrollable. Perplexed by his children's preferences, stressed by the tight financial condition of his sheet metal business, and haunted by wartime memories, Henry's tightly screwed life unravels. Gaxiola is riveting as Henry, desperately seeking to connect with his daughter, recalls in painstaking detail the trauma of the D-Day invasion ~ and riveting again as he fights the aftereffects of a stroke.

Complementing Gaxiola's standout acting are solid performances by Veronica Carmack-Gasper as Annie, the dutiful and patient wife with a potential yet to be realized; Katie Czajkowski as Karen, the petulant daughter yearning to break free from her father's protective grip, and Sky Donovan as Junior, the son struggling between fidelity to his new life and wife and his father.

The family's tensions move like tectonic plates. The ground beneath Harry and crew shifts slowly and unnoticeably and then, one fine day, quakes and displaces all the premises and rules of their road. We are sure to reflect on their experience, its relevance and implications, well beyond the performance. Thank you, Mr. Warren!

Worthy of note: Cuts from the songs of the period (Tossin' and Turnin', Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?, Stand By Me, Exodus) are cleverly placed between scenes and hint at oncoming themes.

The production of Shifting Gears continues its run at the Peoria Center for the Performing Arts through February 1st.

Photo credit to Moran Imaging