Robin Margolis, Sam Linda/Photo: Michael Brosilow
The holiday season can be a lonely one. It can serve as a reminder of better times gone by or loved ones lost. It can also bring out the worst in people. So when Jack and Sheila decided to start The Yule Connection in 1976 on the North Side of Chicago, it seemed like a great outlet for those suffering from the holiday blues. A shoulder to lean on became just a phone call away.
By 1983, Yule Connection had dwindled to five volunteers sharing a largely barren office. These strangers came together to make the season brighter for callers and, undoubtedly, one another. So goes director-playwright Eli Newell’s “Cold Town/Hotline,” anyway. Unfortunately, this well-intentioned seasonal sitcom doesn’t hit its mark.
The cast of this show tries to answer its call. With little to work with, they do their best. They bring fun into a space dedicated to helping others and should be commended for it. Yule Connection’s premise is an optimistic one. These kinds of support hotlines can be difficult due to the emotional labor the workers or volunteers are expected to take on.
Holiday stories are largely unbelievable. We aren’t expected to believe—as adults, anyway—that Santa really travels the earth in one day or that a snowman comes to life and invokes chaos with children. Contrary to popular belief, Will Ferrell isn’t a giant elf. But when it comes to impossible-to-believe storylines, this show takes the cake.
Beyond a multitude of converging stories in eighty minutes, the biggest wrench in this play is Sherman: an adorable eleven-year-old boy who, amidst freezing Chicago weather, runs away from home to find the folks at Yule Connection and who is not immediately returned to his family despite the fact that his father calls into the organization worried about his missing son. Sherman gets the group to promise not to call the police or his family because he got into an argument with his dad. And they comply. This is a group of adults who genuinely think it’s a good idea to keep a child, who isn’t in danger, overnight in their office.
The timing in this show is snail-paced, as if the characters are waiting for a laugh track. Lines hit the audience with little effect. The gimmicky dialogue is partially to blame, but responsibility also lies with a playwright who does double duty as director. It is a difficult task for writer to separate what they imagined from what works on stage.
Hardest of all is rousing folks during the holidays to come to a show and not just phone it in. We need a story to really rally around, to answer the call of holiday tidings. And unfortunately, “Cold Town/Hotline” has a deafening busy signal. (Amanda Finn)
Raven Theatre, 6157 North Clark, (773)338-2177, raventheatre.com, $30. Through December 22.
Related Stories
That's So Raven: A Review of The Gentleman Caller at Raven Theatre Language-heavy, plot-light and emotionally fraught, this world premiere from Philip Dawkins finds an ideal home at Raven Theatre.- A Snapshot of Reel Life: A Review of Crumbs from the Table of Joy at Raven Theatre Company Written in the nineties and set in the fifties, the young women of Lynn Nottage's play, currently being produced at Raven Theatre, eagerly await a revolution that has still yet to materialize.
- The Girl Who Came in from the Cold: A Review of Phoebe in Winter at Facility Theatre Jen Silverman’s play about the absurd world and its power dynamics burns an indelible image into the mind at Facility Theatre.
- Praises Go Up: A Review of Choir Boy at Raven Theatre The Chicago Premiere of Oscar Winner Tarell Alvin McCraney's "Choir Boy" illuminates the internal and external conflicts of young black life.
- Quoth the Raven: A Review of Poe at Theatre Above the Law This charming theatrical anthology is probably best enjoyed only by those fans most committed to its namesake.
- Dog Days: A Review of Yen at Raven Theatre Anna Jordan's play, receiving its local premiere at Raven, examines toxic masculinity in terms of maternal care and its absence.
