RABBIT HOLE: Metamorphosis

By Dan Collins

       David Lindsay-Abaire's RABBIT HOLE, now playing at the Everyman Theater, features a character who is never seen, but whose presence is felt by everyone on stage. His absence fires the play's tragic center, leaving each character with their own burden of pain to carry. How each shoulders this burden is the essence of Lindsay-Abaire's work.

       Set in modern day Larchmont, New York, the play takes place in the upscale home of Howie (Chris Bloch) and Becca (Deborah Hazlett), a 40-something couple who, on the surface, appear to be perfectly normal. Becca sits and folds children's clothes while her younger sister, Izzy (Megan Anderson) relays a comical story of how she punched an unruly woman in a bar.

        As is the modus operandi of the play, there is much said that is not said, and is only slowly revealed. What starts out with the tale of a bar fight, ends with the shocking revelation that Izzy is pregnant.  Will she want to use the children's clothes Becca was planning to give to the Goodwill...but where's the owner of these clothes?

        Later that same day, Howie attempts to enjoy a quiet evening with Becca, dimming the lights, pouring wine, massaging his wife' shoulders-who reacts to his touch as if bitten.  What's happening here?

        There's something terribly wrong in this household and it finds echoes in Becca's history as her mother, Nat (Rosemary Knower), makes references to the death of her son who committed suicide.  Lindsay-Abaire is masterful in his writing, delivering scenes that are bittersweet-sweet on the outside, offering a comic layer, such as Nat's hilarious insights into the curse of the Kennedy family ("rich people who keep falling from the sky"), but then a bitter core, for the message is that of tragic, untimely death.

         This is a family that, like Alice in Carroll's Wonderland, has fallen down a rabbit hole, and has emerged in a place they didn't expect, for no parent ever expects the death of a child. The rabbit hole theme appears again with the sudden appearance of Jason (Troy Jennings), a high school senior who was the unwitting instrument of the family's loss. He sends Becca and Howie a science fiction story about a boy who searches for a replacement for his dead father by entering a cosmic "rabbit hole" that is a gateway to an infinite number of parallel universes.

         "So somewhere there's another me?" Becca asks.

        "If you believe in science, yes," Jason replies.

       Becca smiles. "I like that. It's nIce To know somewhere I am having a good time," and what seems like a joke is revealed by Becca's expression and body language to be a true comfort.

        There is a character that is never seen in this play, and it is not merely a dead child, struck down in an automobile accident. It's the pain the characters suffer, particularly Howie and Becca, and how, through time and understanding, it morphs into something different. "Something you can bear," Nat explains.

           By the play's end, it's clear that this pain will never truly disappear, but it will not destroy this couple, this family. They will endure.  Sitting together, holding hands on the family couch, Becca and Howie face the audience as the curtain falls; their expressions are bittersweet, like this play; sad, but hopeful.  Life will go on, in a new form perhaps, but it will go on.

           The cast of "Rabbit Hole," all Everyman veterans, do an exemplary job in their parts, truly inhabiting their characters, as was clear by the standing ovation they received at play's end. Everyman's set design, sound and lighting are right on target, weaving a believable suburban tapestry, from the backdrop of a neighborhood street, to the barking dog, to the milk, juice, and assorted items in the fridge.

            Rabbit Hole runs now through October 11^th, Wednesdays through Sunday at the Everyman Theatre, 1727 N. Charles Street in Baltimore City. For tickets and/or more information, call 410-752-2208 or visit www.everymantheatre.org.