Lynda Shadrake, Nina O’Keefe, Michael McKeough, Sam Guinan-Nyhart, Allie Long, Mechelle Moe, Morgan Maher, Sandy Elias and Becca Savoy/Photo: Michael Brosilow
RECOMMENDED
Misery: it’s what’s for dinner in “Pocatello,” MacArthur-winner Samuel D. Hunter’s play about the decline of a chain restaurant in the titular Idaho town. Opening with the familiar din of a family restaurant, cross-conversations drift in and out of focus as the desperate sounds of a dying town become more and more distinct. The cacophony intensifies the pain of failed relationships, willful addictions and callous family members.
Thirtysomething restaurant manager Eddie (Michael McKeough) is hell-bent on winding back the Pocatello clock. He tries futilely to make things like they used to be by gathering his mother Doris (Lynda Shadrake) and out-of-town brother Nick (Sam Guinan-Nyhart) for a meal during his restaurant’s “Famiglia Week.” Doris repeatedly walks away—”I don’t have time for this”—and Nick, who can’t sit still without discomfort, explodes furiously when Eddie tries to serve them “Cheez Whiz Casserole,” a dish made by their father who committed suicide twenty years prior.
Lamenting the colonization of his town by big-box stores like Home Depot, Best Buy, Walmart and Applebee’s, Eddie despairs, saying, “I don’t even know where I live anymore.” Unable to keep these stores from exerting their influence over his livelihood, Eddie is equally incapable of stopping them from abandoning Pocatello. He carries with him the secret fate of his own Olive Garden-esque restaurant and desperately tries to hide it from his employees and patrons.
Around Eddie, stereotypical small-town dramas escalate the sense of hopelessness: Tammy, wife of Eddie’s head waiter Troy (Bob Kruse), visits the restaurant in order to convince Troy that their problems have nothing to do with her drinking; Max (Morgan Maher) has moved from having a serious problem with meth to using it purely recreationally; waitress Isabelle (Allie Long) is in possession of a cheerful detachment which might be the very thing these folks need to survive the death of their town.
As a whole, the play is a touching dirge for the residents of small-town America. “Pocatello” painfully maps the ways in which local and personal context are lost in the gargantuan shadow of corporations. (Joy Miller)
Griffin Theatre Company at Signal Ensemble Theatre, 1802 West Berenice, griffintheatre.com, (773)698-7389, $31-$36. Through December 13.
Related Stories
Fear and Trembling: A Review of The Harvest at Griffin Theatre Company The local premiere of this Samuel D. Hunter play at Griffin Theatre Company gives audience to the private suffering of its postulants.- A Long Time Coming: A Review of Caroline, Or Change at Firebrand Theatre & TimeLine Theatre Company Firebrand Theatre and TimeLine Theatre Company co-produce this stirring revival with book and lyrics by Tony Kushner and music by Jeanine Tesori.
- Let "X" Equal... : A Review of X at Sideshow Theatre Company In space, no one knows what time it is.
- I Believe You, Bruce: A Review of Downstate at Steppenwolf Theatre Company In this world premiere at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Bruce Norris attempts to redress the power imbalance between the disenfranchised and those who wield influence over their livelihood, though not in the direction you might expect.
- State of Mind: A Review of You for Me for You at Sideshow Theatre Company Mia Chung's new play at Sideshow Theatre Company is an inventive and imaginative contrast of totalitarian nightmare and democratic indulgence.
- Breaking Down: A Review of Damascus at Strawdog Theatre Company This world premiere at Strawdog Theatre Company stalls on its way to comprehending white privilege and supremacy.
