Escape from Happiness, produced two weekends ago at the Loeb Ex, is a dark and hilarious satire about a group of deeply troubled people who are aware of their own dysfunction yet seem possessed by a zany energy that gets them into and out of all sorts of mishaps. The action revolves around a family of six that lives on the bad side of town and becomes embroiled with drug dealers, porn traffickers and small-time crooks-in addition to a couple of off-kelter cops.

Their escapades take place in a kitchen which, like the family itself, has been running down since the father, Tom, an alcoholic police detective, abandoned his wife and three daughters 10 years before.

The play opens as Tom's wife Nora and her youngest daughter Gail find Gail's husband, Junior, lying in a pool of blood on the kitchen floor. From the first moment it is clear that Nora is off her rocker, an impression wonderfully conveyed by Brittani Sonnenberg '03, whose character manages to remain light and amusing even in the most insane situations. A case in point is the discovery of Junior's body. As Gail tries to help her husband, Nora talks incessantly, theorizing about calling 911, about the seriousness of Junior's bruises, about her relationship with Gail and her other two daughters. She talks Junior to his feet and leaves him, bloody and semi-conscious, to dance while waiting for the ambulance.

This first scene sets the pace and the degree of absurdity for the entire play. Next, the household widens as a man who, according to Nora, "looks like Tom" appears to be living upstairs in a semi-comatose state. This man is, in fact, Tom himself, who 10 years prior had abused the family, tried to burn the house down and abandoned them, and who is now back and recognized by everybody save for his wife. His daughters' reactions to him are mixed. Gail, who is tough, street-smart and devoted to the family, has forgiven him and even cooks for him. Mary Ann, the middle daughter, is a fantastically distressed young woman who fears her father and periodically abandons her husband and child to take refuge in a fantasy world. Elizabeth, the oldest, is a high-powered attorney with a violent streak, who despises her father yet feels the need to do something for her family by torturing those whom she thinks threaten it. This includes not only the father-son crime duo that has beaten Junior for interfering with their porn dealership, but also the team of cops who investigate the crime.

Midway through the play, the plot slows down considerably, yet this is made up for by a series of scenes showing the four starring women sitting around the kitchen table, nursing their neuroses and trying to set their family right. During this time, Mary Ann outs Elizabeth as a lesbian, Nora tries to reform Mary Ann with elaborate guilt trips about motherhood and Elizabeth frantically searches for any household product that can give her a quick high. The current of hostility running between the three sisters is sharp and well done. Less convincing are the few sentimental moments, as the chemistry between Gail (Alex Cooley '02) and Elizabeth (Jessica Shapiro '01) seems to be lacking. Eva Furrow '03 plays a self-absorbed Mary Ann, whose hysterics sound authentic, yet who lacks the gentleness needed for the character's compulsive apologies. When Furrow talks about baking cakes and doing "the little things," we bear witness to one of few moments in the show that lack genuineness.

Just as the four women seem irretrievably lost in their mental tangle, a threat pulls them back together. This threat comes as the two cops find drugs in the house's basement and arrest Nora. To this challenge, the other characters respond each in her own fashion. Elizabeth captures and tortures one of Junior's assailants in the hope of making him confess to the drug dealership. Mary Ann confronts her father and finally comes to terms with him. Gail fetches Junior from the hospital, who, in an ironic twist, proves to have been in a secret alliance with Tom to clean the neighborhood of delinquency.

From here the plot unravels quickly. Through a suite of bizarre events Elizabeth traces the drug set-up back to Dian Black, the cop played by Kate Agresta '02. Agresta's high-pitched, edgy performance seems at times exaggerated, yet it is the only way to reconcile the initial Dian Black, who exudes sleek professionalism, with the final Dian Black who reveals herself as the looniest character of the lot.

Overall the female cast delivers an excellent set of performances, stealing the spotlight from the male characters. Of these, the cop played by B.J. Averell '02 is hilarious, yet somewhat unfittingly so, since as the only sane and honest person he should inspire more respect and fewer laughs. The father-son crime team is entertaining and carries well the grunt of violence and profanity in the play. A highlight worth mentioning is the kitchen decor, which cleverly incorporates many of the items that pop up in the dialogue. Tom's obsession with soup is made concrete by a stack of Campbell's and by the pervasiveness of the word "soup" on all the shopping lists that are on display. A pair of ice skates hanging next to the cooking utensils relate to the play's finale when the family reunited plans to go skating as they used to before Tom's lapse into alcoholism. The disabilities that affect the family are also made visible in the kitchen walls, which are painted a strident yellow and stenciled with bunches of grapes. The alternation between light and dark is smooth, saving the spotlight for a great performance by the cast of Escape from Happiness.

ESCAPE FROM

HAPPINESS

written by

George F. Walker

directed by

Dorothy Fortenberry '02

Nov. 16-18

Loeb Experimental Theater