Review: NonProphet Theater Company's Production of RECKLESS

There are a number of unique holiday-themed shows currently playing in local theatres, and the NonProphet Theater Company has joined in the yuletide fray with their current production of Reckless. Playwright Craig Lucas has crafted a strangely affecting little tale that takes any number of twists and turns as it lurches forward through time, playfully confounding expectations along its path toward a surprisingly satisfying conclusion.

An apparently ordinary Christmas takes a sinister turn when Rachel's husband Tom guiltily reveals to his wife that he's had a contract put on her. This sudden change of heart finds Tom shooing her out of the house in her nightgown just as the hitman is breaking into their home as part of the scheme. She flees for her life, and over the course of the next 20 years, she moves from Springfield to Springfield, changing identities, and searching for some sort of meaning to it all.

Michelle Hand impresses with her work as Rachel, throwing herself into the role completely, and benefiting greatly from the range that the script affords her to play. Tom Lehmann is also good as her louse of a husband, her grown up son, and the second banana on a game show. Ben Ritchie is solid as a man named Lloyd who picks up the shivering Rachel when she first escapes. He appears at first to be nothing more than a kind and generous stranger, but there are skeletons in his closet as well.

Katie Donnelly amuses as Lloyd's wife, Pooty, a deaf and mute paraplegic, who's carrying around a secret or two of her own. Reynard Fox appears as a cynical boss of Rachel's, a game show host, a talk show host, and a phone booth, and handles them all with aplomb. Elizabeth Graveman does nice work as an embezzling co-worker, and Theresa Masters gamely tackles a bevy of psychiatrists and therapists that Rachel seeks out.

Director Robert A. Mitchell brings this crazy quilt together in compelling fashion, deftly exploiting both the humor and the poignancy inherent in the script. He and Nick Uhlmansiek have put together a bare bones set that focuses our attention squarely on the actors, and that's a good thing here, since too much artifice might distract from the wackiness. Uhlmansiek's lighting is also fairly low key, but serves the action well.

NonProphet Theater Company's intriguing production of Reckless provides an engaging evening of theatre, and another alternative to the typical fare you may find at this time of the year. Reckless plays through December 12, 2010 at the Regional Arts Commission on Delmar.