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Phillip is living under a cloud, suspected of having embezzled money from work. Nothing has been proven, and he didn’t go to jail, but he’s lost his job. And his wife, Sheila, and their teenage son, Andrew, are pretty sure he’s guilty. Hence the move out of the bedroom and into the den. Now he plays the perfect househusband, buying the groceries, doing the cleaning, and trying to keep track of rebellious Andrew.
That last task isn’t so easy. Unlike the critters swimming around in Phillip’s aquarium, Andrew is a fish out of water—a gay near-genius who can rattle off long passages from The Guide for the Perplexed, the three-volume treatise in which 12th-century Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides laid out his vision of the universe and the divine. Phillip and Sheila are proud of Andrew’s academic prowess but exasperated by his behavior. His homosexuality and perfect SAT scores have made him a prime target for bullying at school, he suffers from depression and entertains thoughts of suicide—and yet, rather than share his problems with his parents, he cuts class and acts out in bratty, smart-alecky ways, provoking heated arguments with Phillip.
Director Sandy Shinner has assembled a superbly sensitive cast for this world premiere. Steppenwolf members Kevin Anderson and Francis Guinan are a compelling odd couple as Doug and Phillip—the working-class roughneck and the white-collar fussbudget, both struggling with pent-up rage and anxiety. Bubba Weiler is credible as Andrew, the superintelligent wiseass, capable of cruelty and stupidity. And as Sheila and Betty, Meg Thalken and Cynthia Baker invest their characters with a complexity that justifies their presence.
