"The Well-Appointed Room" at the Steppenwolf

The Well-Appointed Room

Richard Greenberg seems to be the current "hot" playwright. His "Take Me Out" won a Tony award and one of his older plays, "Three Days of Rain", is poised to open on Broadway this season with Julia Roberts. The Steppenwolf Theater has produced five of his shows including Rain several seasons ago. His newest play, "The Well-Appointed Room", is premiering at the Steppenwolf.

Essentially this show is comprised of two separate plays that take place in the same apartment. The first act, "Nostalgia", a very short 25 minutes, takes place in real-time as we follow the relationship between a playwright and his wife in their Lower Manhattan condo. The longer second act, "Prolepsis", is about a younger couple who moves into the now-vacant condo and fight their own demons.

All four actors are excellent. Amy Morton and Tracy Letts, as the older couple, run the gambit of emotions in a very short time. We willingly take the roller coaster ride with them. The younger couple, Kate Arrington and Josh Charles, make us empathize with their journey. As the couple starts questioning reality and their own existence, the heartbreak of dealing with an ill partner is palpable. Morton and Letts return in the second play and create completely different (but perhaps ghostly) characters. Both of them are unforgettable while performing their monologues.

Greenberg has stated in interviews that the two plays are juxtaposed against each other using the events of 9/11 to separate them. The second play, which can be funny at times, has a sad disorientating feel. Yes, the title of the piece (I had to look it up) really does fit. Like the characters, we feel we've lost something and really don't know where it went, and whether we can find it in the past or in the future. Even though life goes on, we don't know whether to laugh or cry.

As in all Steppenwolf shows, the production values are superb. Everyone involved with the show is working at the top of his/her craft.  The Steppenwolf can do some great things with their fly system and this play uses it to its fullest. I always enjoy small details like how the stagehands change scenery. It's very clever using them as if they were a moving company. The projection of lower Manhattan and how the World Trade Towers just seem to slowly fade away is moving without being maudlin.

This is the kind of show that I think people will enjoy seeing but come out questioning what it all meant. But that's a good thing because it will lead to discussion and leave some of its secrets hidden from easy interpretation.