The Profiles Theatre hits the mark with "The Mercy Seat"

The Profiles Theatre opened its 21^st Anniversary Season with the Midwest premiere of Neil LaBute's The Mercy Seat.  Directed by Artistic Director, Joe Jahraus, this production runs now through November 15, 2009 at the Profiles Theatre, 4147 N. Broadway.  The Mercy Seat was one of the first theatrical responses to the attacks on September 11, 2001 and the current cast includes Profiles' ensemble member Darrell W. Cox and Cheryl Graeff. 

The Mercy Seat finds two lovers trapped in an apartment in downtown Manhattan on September 12, 2001.  Over the course of the night, they are forced to face the brutal choices they made over the course of their relationship as well as the opportunities that now lay before them.  LaBute exposes the nearly unfathomable, but real, hypothesis that people could be opportunistic in a time of national self-sacrifice.

As a native New Yorker, I found this review really hard to write.  When Abby Prescott (Cheryl Graeff) enters covered in Trade Center dust, I was really taken off guard.  I knew what this play was about; however, that image juxtaposed to the vintage CNN coverage running on the television, immediately brings the audience back to that terrible time. Abby's manic anger and frustration although jarring, was completely realistic and empathetic in Jahraus' world.   Jahraus' decision to highlight the phone ringing motif was also an extremely strong choice.  No matter how self-aggrandizing and myopic these characters became, the strident ring of the phone reminded the characters as well as the audience that there was a world falling apart outside their apartment window. 

I don't know if a play about September 11, 2001 is every going to be a night of light theatre fare.  I'm not even sure if treatment of this time period will ever leave its audience on a hopeful note.  The Mercy Seat sure does not. LaBute throws in your face that maybe we all were not heroes that day. It is not an easy, although an important, issue to face.  Jahraus and the cast deserve special note for making the audience uneasy and uncomfortable, forcing it to face LaBute's questions like the lovers in question must face. The Profiles Theatre production of The Mercy Seat is wonderful and a must see.  www.profilestheatre.org