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Tragic dirty uncle >> How I Learned to Drive is impossibly good by AMY BARRATT
Let's face it: anybody can write a play about child abuse that is horrifying and depressing. How I Learned to Drive gets beyond the stereotypes of a monster preying upon an innocent child and shows us--without for a second implying that it's the child's fault--the emotional complexity of the abusive relationship. The girl, L'il Bit, and her Uncle Peck are fully drawn characters, not symbols. That's why this play won the Pulitzer last year and why it's being produced all over the continent this season. Uncle Peck is not an attacker so much as a persuader. "I'll never do anything you don't want me to do" is his mantra. This is nominally true: through appealing to her sympathy and her sense of loyalty, he is able to wear her down until she "consents" to his touches. Peck is finally a tragic figure, because he knows that his attraction (he calls it love) to his niece is wrong, but is unable to stop himself. The action is non-chronological, with the adult L'il Bit recalling earlier and earlier memories as the play goes on. Michelle Fisk, as L'il Bit, must portray the adult narrator and numerous stages of the girl's life between the ages of 11 and 18. There isn't one false note in her performance. Lubomir Mykytiuk does a terrific acting job as Peck, but is physically all wrong for the part. A reference in the script suggests that Peck should range in age from 38 to 45 in the course of the play, and he is described as a kind of dashing southern Don Juan with an "Elvis curl." Mykytiuk is balding and looks well over 50. The cast also features a "Greek Chorus" of three actors who comment on the action (often by quoting driving manual headings like "Idling in First Gear"), and also take various roles in the narrative. Maggie Nagle is particularly memorable as the mother instructing her daughter on handling her liquor and guarding her virtue. Terry V. Hart is appropriately boorish as L'il Bit's grandpa and a teenage suitor, and Laura Teasdale is a hoot as the grandma. (Incidentally, watch for Teasdale fleeing the theatre after weekend performances and dashing up the Main to appear in The Full Molly at the Infinite Space.) I liked the aspects of William Chesney's set that evoked the "driving" theme: a bar table shaped like a stop sign, the kitchen chairs striped black and yellow for caution. His costumes made less sense to me. I appreciate that it's hard to dress a character who ages 30 years in the course of the play, but the beige skirt and sweater set for Fisk seemed like a cop-out. Nevertheless, this is a solid production of a play that must be seen to be believed. >>> Broadway fans take note: the Lyric Theatre follows up last spring's Broadway Beckons with Opening Doors, a musical revue put together by Corey Castle (director) and Bob Bachelor (musical director). I can't think of anyone in the city who knows musical theatre better than these two, and these Broadway revues are what Lyric does best. The show will feature tunes familiar and obscure from shows as diverse as Damn Yankees and Rent, with a generous helping of Sondheim on the side.
How I Learned to Drive, to Dec. 6; Opening Doors, Nov. 6 to 21, both at Centaur Theatre. 288-3161
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I've been looking forward to this production ever since the Centaur season was announced last spring. A sweet, funny play about sexual abuse seemed an unlikely creature, but that was what critics were calling it. And having some knowledge of the playwright's earlier work, I was willing to believe that if anyone could do it, Paula Vogel could. And she did.