Clockwise's 'Long Awaited' doesn't justify revival

Clockwise Theatre definitely deserves kudos for launching its first full-fledged subscription season. Founded in 2010 and located in a storefront space next door to the Genesee Theatre in Waukegan, Clockwise fulfills its mission to focus on Midwestern artists by presenting Claudia Allen's 1989 play “The Long Awaited.”

Unfortunately, Allen's comic drama doesn't make a strong case for revival. Originally premiered in Chicago by Victory Gardens Theater (where Allen is a member of its Playwrights Ensemble), “The Long Awaited” repeatedly undercuts the dramatic stakes and then serves up a partially happy ending that doesn't feel earned.

Not that Allen fails to provide setups for plenty of conflict to erupt in “The Long Awaited.” It's just that those outbursts of anger and resentment subside not long after they start, dramatically cheating most of the proceedings.

“The Long Awaited” is set in 1977 in a small Michigan town and focuses on divorced mother Bessie Ferguson (Rebecca Adler) who is tending to her dying mother (Carol Alleman). Not only is Bessie's grown mechanic son, Bob (Patrick Pantelis) prone to drunken binges, but her brother, Vernon (Steve Zeal), fails to do his fair share of help since he's been on the lam from the law after deserting from the Army during the Korean War.

When Bessie's mother takes a turn for the worse, Bob calls Vernon to come home. Unfortunately Vernon's return coincides with the arrival of Sgt. Marvin Kemp (Patrick Kerr), who has single-mindedly pursued this particular Army deserter with such regularity that Bessie and her mother have become his arms-length friends (Kemp ultimately reveals an ulterior motive for his strange devotion).

With so much happening in “The Long Awaited” (the approaching death of a parent, an unmotivated and likely alcoholic son, sibling spats over caretaking, a fugitive trying to evade arrest, a second chance at love), it's frustrating that Allen just presents everything at such an even keel that there's little to no dramatic tension throughout. Even a revealed secret late in the play from Sgt. Kemp's visiting grown daughter, Arvilla (Lindsay Bartlett), elicits a shrug of “So what?”

Director Madeline Franklin doesn't draw genuine performances from her cast, who largely seem to be going through the paces rather than truly living each character's personal drama. Franklin's staging also is inorganic at times, with some characters lacking peripheral vision to notice the entrance of other people behind them or reactionary skills to be distracted by someone else's severe coughing fit in the middle of their close-by conversation.

If there are plusses to be found in “The Long Awaited,” it's the play's messages of forgiveness and the possibility of second chances after so much despair.

While there are plenty of possibilities for Clockwise and its future growth in Waukegan, its current production of “The Long Awaited” doesn't live up to the potential of this fairly new theater company. We hope Clockwise will hit a better stride with its upcoming shows this season: Alexandra Main's “Courting Vampires” in January and February and Joanna McClelland Glass' “Palmer Park” in March and April.