Steppenwolf's 'Up' pits dreamer against pragmatist
Bridget Carpenter's "Up" unfolds not as a soaring statement about the pursuit of dreams, but as a more grounded admonition about sustaining balance in one's life: about finding a way to enjoy both freedom and security and to accommodate individual dreams with family needs.
In the end, it comes down to ballast, having a proper counterweight to prevent you from listing to one side and allow you to ascend and descend smoothly and safely.
Carpenter's agreeable 2002 drama about an imaginative eccentric refusing to remain earthbound was inspired by California truck driver Larry Walters (whose actions also inspired 2003's "Danny Deckchair" and Disney Pixar's current hit, "Up").
In 1982, Walters attached 45 helium balloons to a lawn chair and soared unexpectedly to an altitude of 16,000 feet where he drifted for about 14 hours until he managed to shoot some of the balloons. On the descent, the balloons caught in some power lines, stranding Walters and knocking out power to a Long Beach neighborhood. Walters survived the crash, earned 15 minutes of fame and a Darwin Award honorable mention, and served as inspiration to other unconventional aviators.
A sweet play accompanied by a bit of strife typical of Steppenwolf Theatre (which concludes its season-long examination of the imagination with this show), "Up" pits the visionary against the pragmatist. The former is embodied in the central character of Walter Griffin (played with charm and simplicity by Steppenwolf ensemble member Ian Barford). An unemployed inventor, Walter pursues his dreams with a passion that invites both admiration and disdain. Serving as Walter's pragmatic counterpart is his wife Helen (the righteously, endearingly indignant Lauren Katz), a mail carrier who fears their middle class life is going "to shatter into pieces and float away" unless Walter gets his head out of the clouds and puts his nose to the grindstone.
The play unfolds in the late 1990s, 15 years after Walter's adventure in aviation, in the couple's perfunctory, suburban tract house beneath a picture perfect sky. Aside from a few speaking engagements, Walter has spent the intervening years happily unemployed and concocting new contraptions to carry him skyward again. The family's financial support falls to the increasingly anxious Helen whose hours are about to be cut, which forces Walter to get a job outside the home.
Meanwhile their 15-year-old son Mikey (a guileless Jake Cohen), finds a job where he wasn't looking for one, after meeting pregnant 16-year-old Maria (newcomer Rachel Brosnahan, making an affecting Chicago debut), a hyper-articulate, fast-talking charmer whose alcoholic mother kicked her out after she learned Maria was pregnant. Maria lives with Aunt Chris (a shrewdly ambiguous Martha Lavey) - an ambitious woman with dubious ethics - who offers Mikey a job selling office supplies over the phone. The life lessons - involving his growing affection for Maria - he gets for free.
Rounding out the cast is acclaimed circus artist Tony Hernandez, who plays Walter's alter-ego and muse, Philippe Petit (the subject of 2008's Academy Award-winning documentary "Man on a Wire"), the French high-wire artist who became a legend after he walked between the twin towers of the World Trade Center in 1974.
The cast is first-rate. Carpenter has crafted some wonderfully intimate scenes (the one where Maria tells Mikey about her relationship with her baby's father is nearly flawless) which unfold seamlessly under Anna D. Shapiro's sure and steady direction. But while Carpenter is careful not to overdo the whimsy, the second act deflates. I would argue that it doesn't inspire much of an emotional investment. And yet, the more I reflected on "Up," the more I liked it as a flight of fancy re-imagined as a cautionary tale.
"Up"
Rating: 2½ stars
Location: Steppenwolf Theatre, 1650 N. Halsted St., Chicago
Showtimes: 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays; 3 and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays through Aug. 23. Also 2 p.m. July 29, Aug. 5, 12 and 19; no performances July 4
Running time: About two hours, with intermission
Tickets: $20-$70
Parking: $9 in lot adjacent to theater
Box office: (312) 335-1650 or steppenwolf.org
Rating: For adults
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