'Heat Wave' suffers meltdown on stage
As a critique of a civic disaster, "Heat Wave" sizzles.
As theater, it sputters. Not because it lacks a compelling story, but because it fails to tell that story in a cohesive, compelling way.
Adapted by Steven Simoncic from Eric Klinenberg's book, "Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago," the play chronicles the July 1995 tragedy that claimed 739 lives over the course of a week or so when temperatures soared in the low 100s. Most victims were poor, elderly and minorities, a demographic one character -- a city hall insider -- describes as "the trifecta of death."
Directed by Ilesa Duncan, this joint production from Pegasus Players and Live Bait Theater documents the crisis in a series of scenes that unfolds against lighting designer Sean Mallory's red haze on a stark, imposing set by Richard and Jacqueline Penrod.
More Coverage Video "Heat Wave"
"Heat Wave" takes us from the morgue, where the influx of bodies overwhelms workers, to the mayor's office where press officers play down the impending tragedy. It shifts to the streets where frustrated Chicago Housing Authority residents stay cool any way they can, then to the newsrooms where the press coverage is superficial at best. Finally it moves to the predominantly black neighborhoods on the city's South and West sides, where frightened, forgotten people succumb to the heat locked inside apartments they are either afraid or unable to leave.
The docu-drama places blame squarely with the Daley administration for its inadequate emergency preparation and subsequent mishandling of the crisis. It also indicts social service agencies that failed to protect the city's most vulnerable residents. Lastly, it attributes the loss of life to societal breakdown: Friends and family who no longer look after their own and a community that considers some of its members dispensable.
The earnest "Heat Wave" inspires righteous anger. But it's less a riveting theatrical event than a reminder of a tragedy Klinenberg described in a 2002 Slate magazine article as "a footnote in the grand narrative of affluence and revitalization that dominates American life in the 1990s." Thinly drawn and cliched characters (sensitive tough girl, crusading reporter, stonewalling official) fail to connect emotionally. And the play needs streamlining, beginning with the superfluous back stories and a more consistent tone, which currently lurches from poignant, to farcical to tragic.
TayLar and Joseph Garlock do nice work as the whistle-blowing head of the medical examiner's office and as the conscience-stricken press officer trying to keep a lid on the crisis. Jon Stutzman's ambitious reporter, Venessa Ortega's day-care provider and Earl Alphonso Fox and Ali Carter as a dying man and his younger self also deserve mention. They provide some affecting moments, but can't raise its temperature beyond simmer.
"Heat Wave"
2 1/2 stars
out of four
Location: O'Rourke Center, Truman College, 1145 W. Wilson Ave., Chicago
Times: 8 p.m. Thursdays to Saturdays; 3 p.m. Sundays through April 6
Running Time: About two hours, with intermission
Tickets: $17, $25
Parking: Street parking, nearby lot
Box office: (773) 878-9761 or pegasusplayers.org
Rating: Strong language, for high school and older