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Theater review
Calls to Blood
The New Colony. By James Asmus. Dir. Andrew Hobgood. With Sarah Gitenstein, Gary Tiedemann, Evan Linder, Mary Hollis Inboden.
CLOSE CALLS Gitenstein and Tiedemann share a moment.“I’ve got a great idea for a play”: It’s a phrase that can evoke dread at social gatherings and El platforms alike. Lots of people have nuggets of experience that could presumably anchor a drama, but not many of them have Asmus’s technical chops. In his new play, Chicagoan-turned-Angeleno Asmus uses an improbable but apparently true scenario to demonstrate his gift for capturing the rhythms of contemporary talk. Tracking a couple whose attempts to conceive a child lead them to some unhappy places, Calls to Blood is at its best in the interplay among its characters, whether the intimate struggles of Alison (Gitenstein) and Jacob (Tiedemann) or the snappy banter of best friends Kirk (a very funny Linder) and Suellen (Inboden).
That snappy banter, on the other hand, reflects one of the piece’s limitations: While, at their strongest, the wisecracking best friends seem plucked from a Lincoln Park nightspot, they’re also torn from the same cloth as such sitcom icons as Rhoda Morgenstern and Maynard G. Krebs. On the whole, Calls to Blood plays it a little safe, relying on the shock of its underlying reveal to set it apart without fully exploring the implications for its characters; Alison and Jacob remain nice people trapped in a bad situation. But the New Colony’s fierce production transcends the scenario’s slick contours. As Alison, Gitenstein brings a breathtaking passion to the stage; torn apart by what she learns, Gitenstein manages to lift the play from its true-story origins to true art.
Time Out Chicago / Issue 243 : Oct 22–28, 2009
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This show was so powerful. The actors did a fantastic job and were so believable - it was heart wrenching! With some added real-life situational humor, I would highly recommend this show if you can appreciate some great acting and true talent!
The show, based on a true story, is a heart wrenching drama with a ghastly climax and introspective ending. The show makes good use of realistic dialog which makes the scenes and conversations feel natural although there were a few bumps in the road the night I saw it Without giving too much of the plot away, the show ponders the unthinkable and challenges the audience to look inward in a way that felt very real albeit a little forced. Given the nature of occurrences... It's understandable. YMMV.
Huh. I felt very differently about it. I got really emotionally involved in this show. Even the humor in it felt honest. In fact, I thought putting that much honestly funny stuff in what's otherwise a heart breaking drama was NOT playing it safe. Because a less capapble writer & production could have failed to integrate them or simply blown one or the other. Anyway, it's one of the only shows where I can actually say "I laughed, I cried, I wan t people to see it"