Theatre Seven currently presents Diversey Harbor through May 10th at the Greenhouse Theater Center. Through a short series of monologues, Diversey Harbor tells a day in the life of four young Chicagoans and asks the audience to ponder interconnectedness in the city. While Theatre Seven does a nice job, the script, like most new plays debuting in Chicago, seems unfinished and in need of one more workshop. The young actors maintain their characters and captivate the audience with their ten-minute-plus monologues (not an easy feat), most notable, Robin Kacyn. Kacyn impresses because she tackles the parts of the monologues that go from every-day young-person-speak to heightened poetry. The rest of the actors aren’t amateurs; it is the unpolished script that causes Brian Stojak, Charlie Olsen, and Tracey Kaplan trouble. How does an actor gracefully move from, “I was like puking in the bushes in my hoody” to “as the regal Chicago river hollows the great majestic steel mountains like a canyon” in one breath?* Marisa Wegryzn, the playwright, makes strong dramaturgical choices, like the strategic placement of a central prop and unexpected twists, but can’t seem to make the whole piece come together in the end. Like her mix of modern speak and heightened language, it is the middle ground that needs more work. It is like watching the potential of the play without the satisfaction of the whole story.
As for this show, their production values were strong. The foam core city looked good, as did the look of the young people (though Dennis’s jacket made him look a little too old). Unfortunately the light and sound designs were both distracting but for the opposite reasons. While I can appreciate lighting designer Justin Wardell’s desire to escape the monotony of a monologue show, having the actors change color or get quite dark in the middle of their pieces pulled me out of the story each time. On the opposite end, sound designer Miles Polaski’s same four bars between each monologue not only felt monotonous but confused many audience members by making them think the show was over after the third and fourth monologue.
If this is a promise of what is to come from Theatre Seven, look forward to their next offering. Despite some problems with the script and a few unfortunate choices in design, the production was enjoyable and polished.
* These aren’t real lines from the script but rather rough ideas.
