Compelling 'Three Hotels' gets powerful revival
It never fails.
Sure as snow in January, each December a show sneaks in under the wire to snag a spot on my list of the year's top theater productions. (For the complete list, see the Dec. 28 edition of Time out!).
This year, Actors Workshop Theatre's quiet, compelling production of Jon Robin Baitz's "Three Hotels" earned a place among the runners-up largely on the acting prowess of Brian Parry and Jan Ellen Graves, whose nuanced performances amount to a master class in subtlety.
Shrewdly directed by Michael Colucci and Johnny Garcia, "Three Hotels" is a wry, insightful, tightly constructed drama about corporate malfeasance and marital conflict, underscored by personal and professional tragedy and set against the pursuit of power and the erosion of individual ethics.
Like Brian Friel's "Faith Healer," the play unfolds as a series of monologues spoken by corporate VP Kenneth Hoyle and his wife, Barbara, and delivered separately from nondescript hotel rooms in Morocco, the Virgin Islands and Mexico over several years during the late 1980s. The principals never interact in this talky play where the action consists of characters' recalling the past. Yet Baitz (writer and producer of ABC's "Brothers and Sisters") keeps us engaged in this tale about a company man who sacrifices his conscience to ensure quarterly profits, which is rooted in 1977's international boycott of the Nestle company for promoting formula over breast milk in third-world countries.
Parry plays Ken, a former Peace Corps volunteer turned marketing wiz turned hatchet man for Iris and Rose, a U.S.-based, corporate giant that manufactures baby formula. Ken rose through the ranks on the strength of his specious African ad campaign touting the company's formula as preferable to breast milk and using saleswomen dressed as nurses to promote the product.
Having abandoned his idealism and compromised his ethics, Ken approaches his territory (Africa) with a sort of cordial condescension and "manufactured thuggishness." Referring to third-world markets as "developing nations, which is slightly laughable given just how little development occurs," he justifies his behavior as "just business," until a scandal forces him to reconsider how his company does business, resulting in a crisis of conscience and the rueful observation that "we've brought them the worst we've had to offer … people like us."
Parry, whose monologues bookend the play, is pitch-perfect as Ken, whose cool arrogance and glib defense of company policy give way to self-loathing, self-awareness and finally to remorse as he struggles to recover what's left of his conscience. Ken might have sold out, but he is not without a soul. Parry makes us see that. He invites our scorn, but still manages to elicit our empathy. It's a neat trick and Parry performs it flawlessly.
Graves plays Barbara, also a one-time Peace Corps member who played the dutiful corporate wife until a personal tragedy transformed her. Speaking to the wives of executives assigned overseas, she urges them to be careful. "Be careful that the company does not turn your husband into something unrecognizable," she warns them. Like Ken, she experiences a crisis of faith. But in her case, it's faith in her husband that has been shaken, pushing their marriage to the breaking point.
In Barbara's monologue, Baitz artfully weaves together her speech to the women with recollections of her teenage son's murder, which occurred when the family was assigned to Brazil.
Graves is terrific. In a subdued, effortless performance, she reveals a steeliness beneath Barbara's grief and resignation, the kind of resolve that enables her to reclaim herself, even though that comes at a price. What's more, she connects with every person in the room. Granted, the space is small, but the connection is palpable. We feel her pain. And it's something we won't forget.
"Three Hotels"
3½ stars out of four
Location: Actors Workshop Theatre, 1044 W. Bryn Mawr Ave., Chicago
Times: 8 p.m. Thursdays to Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays; through Jan. 12
Running Time: About 85 minutes, no intermission
Tickets: $20-$30
Parking: Street parking available
Box office: (773) 728-7529 or www.actorsworkshop.org
Rating: For teens and older