'Crowd' battles it out over child-rearing
For a few moments during "The Crowd You're In With," it felt like playwright Rebecca Gilman might pull her punch.
She didn't.
The Chicago-based Gilman ("Spinning Into Butter," "The Glory of Living," "Boy Gets Girl") is too smart for that. Moreover, I suspect she respects her audience too much to stoop to an obvious conclusion.
A personal, provoking writer, Gilman has a knack for articulating issues in a balanced way. She masterfully pairs provocative observations with pointed quips and creates immediately recognizable characters. All of which contribute to the success of her telling new play in its Chicago premiere at Goodman Theatre.
To parent or not to parent? That is the question that animates this taut, truthful 80-minute conversation on procreation in which three couples spend the nation's birthday debating whether to have children or not.
Drawn from the playwright's personal experience and titled after a lyric from "Positively 4th Street" by Bob Dylan, "The Crowd You're In With" unfolds on Chicago's North Side on July 4, 2007, in the well-manicured backyard of a classic two-flat, flawlessly recreated by designer Kevin Depinet. With its wooden porches and tidy lawn, weathered metal chairs and electrical lines extending from the roof, Depinet's meticulously detailed set is charmingly familiar.
The play centers on thirtysomething professionals Melinda (a lovely, intimate performance from Janelle Snow) and her husband Jasper (an artfully ambivalent Coburn Goss). Melinda and Jasper have come to a crossroads. She wants to have a child. He isn't so sure. Their best friends Dan (Kiff Vanden Heuvel), a pop music critic, and his pregnant wife Windsong (Stephanie Childers) have come down firmly on the side of pro-procreation, despite evidence of slight fault lines in the relationship. Whether a quake results remains to be seen.
Joining the party are Melinda and Jasper's landlords and upstairs neighbors: political consultant Tom (Rob Riley) and his union organizer wife Karen (the formidable Linda Gehringer, earning respect despite her keenly abrasive attitude). Childless by choice, with a marriage as solid as a rock, Tom and Karen committed to their decision long ago.
"We're 60," says Tom. "It's not like we haven't thought it through."
Still, confrontation puts them on the defensive. And confrontation, couched in innocuous banter, underlies most of the exchanges between these three couples. The only exceptions are those involving Dwight (Sean Cooper, who does an exceptional job providing comic relief), Jasper's slacker friend whose riff on Tupperware-toting parents bringing toddlers to restaurants ill-suited for young diners generates well-deserved laughs.
Solidly directed by Wendy C. Goldberg, who collaborated with Gilman in developing the play and nimbly articulates the subtle tension that underpins it, "The Crowd You're In With" faithfully addresses all sides. The pressure to conform versus the chance to live life on one's own terms is just one of many arguments examined.
Gilman makes an eloquent argument for parenthood. "What a kick," Melinda says, "to have more of the people you love in the world."
Yet, the play doesn't flinch when it comes to expressing hard truths - the sacrifices made, the freedoms lost and the estrangements that sometimes tear families apart.
"The Crowd You're In With"
Rating: 3 stars
Location: Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn St., Chicago
Showtimes: 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sundays; through June 21; also 7:30 p.m. June 9 and 16; no 7:30 p.m. shows June 7 and 21
Running time: About 80 minutes, no intermission
Tickets: $15-$39
Box office: (312) 443-3800 or goodmantheatre.org
Rating: For adults
<div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <div class="moreSubHead"> Video</div> <ul class="video"> <li><a href="/multimedia/?category=1&type=video&item=247">'The Crowd You're In With' </a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>