For heterosexuals, having babies can be—very often is—a no-brainer. That’s one huge cause of the suffering in the world, but it’s also a blessing for the race. How many of us would have children if we had to think too hard about it? The costs. The anxiety and inconvenience. The messes. Would we consider it a good deal to give up a minimum two decades of our lives raising people who are pretty much guaranteed to hate us for half that time and then to move out just when they start getting interesting and potentially productive? I thank God for the hormone-driven ignorance that led me to have children because, as it turns out, I love them. Still, there’s no way it made sense.
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Which is why I’m fascinated by gay couples who become parents even though they actually do have to think strategically about it, and then go to considerable trouble to achieve it. Is there a cost-benefit argument I don’t see? Is the urge so deep-seated that it trumps all other considerations? Are they socialized to want it because everybody else does?
And Darcy undermines with a vengeance, even as she tries desperately to maintain the shaky status quo she’s established with Leigh. She’s sneaky, cranky, bullying, and stunningly manipulative about it—sometimes by turns and sometimes all at once. At certain points you think you’ve found out why, but you’re wrong. The truth comes late and unpredictably, and it provides a painful revelation about the psychic cost of difference.
Thing is, the production doesn’t really explore this notion so much as illustrate it over and over—seven times, in fact.
Through 10/16: Thu-Sat 8 PM, Sun 3 PM, Chicago Dramatists, 1105 W. Chicago, 312-633-0630, chicagodramatists.org, $32.
Sophocles: Seven Sicknesses
Through 10/23: Fri-Sat 7 PM, Sun 3 PM, Chopin Theatre, 1543 W. Division, 773-989-7352, the-hypocrites.com, $36 includes dinner.
