BLASTED | A RED ORCHID THEATRE WHEN Through 3/4: Thu-Sat 8 PM, Sun 7 PM WHERE A Red Orchid Theatre, 1531 N. Wells PRICE $20-$25 INFO 312-943-8722
Also perplexing to theatrical tastemakers was the play’s uneven tone. What starts out as a crisp, quasi-naturalistic relationship study literally explodes midway, turning into an expressionistic nightmare, then subsiding into a somber yet almost beatific ritual of healing. Perhaps most troubling was its portrait of an England overrun by war and anarchy, a view the play’s British detractors regarded as the ranting of a publicity-seeking punk.
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Did the rape trigger this breakdown of order? Or is the soldier’s incursion a fantasy–and, if so, whose? Is it Ian’s guilt-ridden, alcoholic hallucination or one of Cate’s narcoleptic dreams? All the audience knows is that the chaos Ian feared has come crashing into his room, and he has to fight for his life–and Cate’s. In the second half of the play, as suffering wears him down to a primal state, this self-destructive, dying man learns he will do and endure anything–anything–to survive.
