Rabbit Hole
The third show of Attleboro
Community Theatre's 53rd season is the Massachusetts area premiere
of "Rabbit Hole", a play by David Lindsay-Abaire which won him the
Pulitzer Prize and the Tony Award for drama in 2007. Becca and
Howie Corbett have everything a family could want until a shattering
accident turns their world upside down and leaves them drifting
perilously apart. The show is a comic drama that focuses on a couple
trying to cope with the death of their only child, a four year old,
in an auto accident, while Becca's well meaning mother and off
kilter sister attempt to lift their spirits and deal with their own
problems, each in her own inimitable way. The couple's lives are
further complicated when Jason, the young driver who killed their
son contacts them seeking closure, too. A conversation between Becca
and Jason includes a brief discussion of the theory of quantum
immortality as described in a story he has written about a place
where "rabbit holes" lead to parallel universes. However, the theme
of the play is the way people handle grief, the death of the child,
the suicide of a family member and not the theory or search for
quantum immortality. Director Beverly Darling casts the best five
people for these roles. The internal despair of each character is
always visible to the audience but Beverly brings the pathos and
humor out in each gut wrenching scene of this electrifying show.
Beverly brings out the deep
seated emotions from her talented cast. It shows how to find hope
even in the darkest moments and to find the path to the light of day
again. There is a lot of truth, accuracy and humor in the details of
this story. She is aided in her task by hard working stage manager,
Barbara McCarthy who keeps things moving beautifully. The fantastic
set is by Douglas Green and Greg Barbon and the furniture was lent
to ACT from Cardi's Furniture Store. It is a unit set with a living
room downstage, kitchen up center with a stairway and upstairs
child's bedroom with a toy box on stage right. Kim Alessandro is a
powerhouse in this show. She plays Becca who tries to stay busy to
keep her mind off the family tragedy. The show opens with her
folding the clothes of her four year old son, Danny. and you
gradually learn what has happened during her conversation with her
younger sister, Izzy. Kim shows Becca's controlled anger and grief
which simmer beneath the surface at times. Becca explodes at a
mother in the supermarket who ignores her 5 year old because the
child wants a fruit roll up and Becca slaps her face. In one of the
poignant moments in the show, she finally breaks down crying in a
scene with Jason when they are discussing his prom and she finally
finds closure. Kim can also handle comic roles, having reviewed her
as the charwomen in "Christmas Carol" for ACT in 2008 and having
directed her in "The Case of the Double Crossing Crook" for
Whodunnit in 2002. Greg Barbon plays her husband, Howie wonderfully.
He tries to get Becca to come around by rekindling their physical
relationship and when she doesn't want to, he deals with his grief
by watching a videotape of Danny. Howie becomes outraged at one of
Becca's actions when she accidentally erases the videotape with
footage of a tornado from the weather channel. Greg's best moment
comes when he breaks down in tears during their argument scene
near the end of Act 1 when Howie feels Becca is trying to erase the
memory of Danny from their lives. Greg is also at home doing comedy
having reviewed him as Christopher Wren in "The Mousetrap" for
MMAS and having first seen him as the delivery man in 1989 in "No
Sex Please We're British" at the Newport Playhouse.
Amy Silva is very funny as
Izzy who constantly eats throughout the show. Izzy always wants to
be the center of attention and she tries to cheer Becca up by
telling her about how she punched a fat woman in the mouth and that
Izzy is moving in with her boyfriend, Augie. These stories fail to
cheer Becca up. Izzy is puzzled at the bathroom set Howie and Becca
bought her for her birthday. Amy also has some dramatic moments in
the show with the best one being the argument scene between Greg and
her when she accuses him of seeing another woman, having learned it
from her waitress friend. Judy Lea Eustace has a gem of a role as
Nat, the mother. Nat and Izzy are a lot alike with liking to drink
and saying inappropriate things. Judy has a comic highlight about
the story about the "Kennedy Curse" about rich people acting
stupid and how people want things to make sense. This scene explodes
into a dramatic one when Nat shares her past grief with them. She
explains to Becca its key symptom is an overwhelming, isolating,
heavy feeling that never really goes away and is like a brick. Judy
has a funny moment about Danny eating chocolate covered espresso
beans one time and running all over the place in Act 2. Amy and
Judy handle the moments of levity needed to balance the heavy
moments along the way. I last reviewed Amy in "Never Get Smart with
an Angel" for Theatre Works in 2008 and Judy in "Chapter Two" for
ACT this past April. Brian Balduzzi plays Jason, the teenaged driver
of the car. He shows his remorse by writing a letter to Becca and
later speaking to her about writing a story about how the little boy
will live on in a parallel universe in his science fiction story.
Jason explains how he didn't see the boy when the dog darted out in
front of his car. Brian handles Jason's awkwardness at facing them
wonderfully. So for a terrific look at a contemporary play that
audiences can readily relate to, be sure to catch this gut wrenching
play at ACT before it is too late.
RABBIT
HOLE (12 to 28 February, 2010)
Attleboro Community Theatre, 71 North Main Street, Attleboro,MA
1 (508)226-8100 or
www.attleborocommunitytheatre.com