Rose McConnell, Maggie Erwin, Michael Kevin Darnall, Carolyn Kashner, Chris Stinson, and Tia Shearer. Photo: C. Stanley Photography.
The Hub Theatre’s spring fling is a theater piece with an old fashioned setting, modern theater elements and a timeless message. Don’t get wrapped around the title of Failure: A Love Story. It’s a bit of a red herring and you would miss the open-your-mind fun that the show provides.
Set in Chicago during the first quarter of the 20th century, Failure has comfy historical touches and flavor, but purposely takes us to places of comical whimsy and deeper subtexts. Native Chicago Playwright Philip Dawkins has the cast tell the audience that the year is 1928, and that by the end of the year the three Fail sisters will be dead: one by blunt object, one by disappearance, and one by consumption (in that order). This lament is repeated several times throughout the show, echoing a bittersweet turn again and again. Opening as an interchangeable Greek Chorus, the cast wittily explains how parents Henry and Marietta Fail come to America and open a clock repair shop along the Chicago River at the intersection of Lumber and Love. The water is a dangerous thing, we keep finding out, as the cast cleverly recreates how they die during a freak boating accident tidal wave. Got that?
…this talented cast was intent on infusing each stage moment to the fullest and rose above the whimsy.
Continuing in Dawkins’ fast-paced narrative style, we spin into the present and meet the Fail sisters properly. They are easy to differentiate: Nelly (Maggie Erwin) is an energetic and doe-eyed dreamer with the world in front of her. Middle sister Jenny June (Tian Shearer) is a veritable mighty mouse full of derring-do, focusing on becoming a champion swimmer. Gertie (Carolyn Kashner) is the eldest child, a serious sort who owns a knowing look and talks in the quick clipped tones of early movies.
Maggie Erwin, Tia Shearer, and Chris Stinson. Photo: . Stanley Photography.
The final child is little brother John, (marvelously played by Chris Stinson) whom they find as a tiny baby floating down the river in a basket and adopt. He is decidedly odd in a knowing way, with a persistently pained facial expression. Added to the quirkiness is the musical accompaniment of ‘Gramaphone’ (Rose McConnell) a walking and singing everyperson. She at times is a grandfather clock and a feather/snake boa, and gives the piece a dreamlike quality. Think of Kaufman and Hart’s You Can’t Take It With You for the lighthearted quirkiness of a house full of characters.
A bare set serves as a backdrop for many different scenes. A few furniture pieces and boxes, as well as a picture of a bridge, are all we see onstage. Actors interchangeably take on roles in this theater-of-the mind setting. Tuneful songs accent the scenes, especially the foreshadowing “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love.”
Yet it is a love story…or three. A dashing gent named Mortimer (Michael Kevin Darnall) comes to the clock shop and, in a series of preposterous yet moving scenes, falls in love and loses each sister in the aforementioned ways. His versatility showed in many emotionally demanding scenes. But is “Mort” the one that brought death to the women, or just a pawn in the tidings of life? In the clock shop we are reminded that time marches on, and we know not how much is left. At the end, Mortimer symbolically stops time by turning back the hands of a grandfather clock to revisit his memory and make sense of his loss.
Tackling love and loss in such a folksy, tuneful fashion is a tenuous undertaking. Sometimes the convention doesn’t fully hold. Yet this talented cast was intent on infusing each stage moment to the fullest and rose above the whimsy. Director Matt Bassett helped craft characters who packed so much life into their roles that, in the end, my senses were a little tired. Failure: A Love Story certainly fits into the Hub’s wheelhouse as a recent new work by an emerging playwright that is much needed in NOVA.
As the intrepid Jenny June intones late in the show: “Just because something ends doesn’t mean it wasn’t a success.”
Running Time: 1 hour and 45 minutes without intermission.
Failure: A Love Story is presented at The Hub Theatre, 9431 Silver King Court, Fairfax, VA 22031 from April 25 – May 18, 2104. For tickets or other performances in the 2014 season, call 1.800.494.8497 or go online.
