BWW Reviews: RECKLESS by Craig Lucas is Both Ponderous and Pointless

RECKLESS, by Craig Lucas, wants to be a black comedy. The script, written in a cinematographic style, poses some serious problems in staging. For something so paper thin to work, the audience needs to go on the same nightmare downhill sleigh ride as the protagonist. We need to feel as buffeted by the play itself as she does by the events of the play. Unfortunately, the staging of this production is weighed down by numerous lengthy scene changes on what is a minimalistic set. These numerous changes bog the evening down and what should be a barrage of insanity ends up being a few humorous moments. The cartoon craziness this script cries out for never really happens.

The main problem with the script is that is starts off on multiple promising threads that all dead end... sometimes quite literally. Nothing ever gets fully developed. The main messages, that life is a random series of events and that "the nightmare is what you wake up to" aren't anything new. The sense of loss and what constitutes a family are topics that have been explored before (and much more successfully) by playwrights like John Guare and Christopher Durang and by films like "After Hours."

Then there are the multiple technical problems. As always, it seems, at City Theatre, we have lights flashing and strobing through the evening. Add to this the overlong scene changes and sound that is so muddled that you are unable to clearly make out what is being said, and there just comes a point where, as an audience member, you just stop caring.

There are some good performances here; notably the wonderful Bobbie Oliver as a succession of Doctors and Nina Bryant who delivers multiple characters with great finesse, especially as Trish, the office coworker from Hell. Jesselyn Parks delivers a charming performance as Pooty. Suzanne Balling, as our protagonist, the impossibly cheerful housewife Rachel, delivers a strong performance but the shows myriad technical issues undermine her work.

As the show's publicity, quoting Lewis Caroll, says: "when you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there." Sadly, in the case of RECKLESS, neither the journey nor the destination are particularly interesting.

RECKLESS by Craig Lucas

Running time: One hour and 40 minutes with one intermission.

RECKLESS, produced by City Theatre (3823 Airport Blvd. Suite D., Austin, Tx.)
Nov. 21 - Dec. 21, 2014.
Thursdays - Saturdays 8:00 p.m., Sundays 5:30 pm.
Two shows Thanksgiving weekend, Saturday and Sunday.
General Seating $15. Front/2nd Row Reserved $20-25. Thursday all seats $10. Group and student discounts.
For reservations, call 512-524-2870 or e-mail info@citytheatreaustin.org.
www.citytheatreaustin.org