Playwright: William Donnelly. At: Point of Contention at Boho Theatre, 7016 N. Glenwood. Tickets: 312-326-3631; . www.BrownPaperTickets.com; $15. Runs through: Oct. 2
The world may be coming to an end, or it may be morphing into an eternal calypso party. That's the tease at the end of Apocalypso! but it has little to do with the story, which is kind-of Our Town meets Northern Exposure. Y'see, we're in some unspecified contemporary American backwater ( seemingly not rural, but no metropolis ) where eight friends, spouses, exes and relatives decide to try a little tenderness with each otheror at least a little honestybetween Xmas and New Year's Eve. Each has an issue or secret with one of the others. One of them, Dora, is a self-proclaimed prophet who blandly announces the The End of the World at Midnight. It matters little because playwright William Donnelly doesn't really establish a cause-and-effect connection between Dora's prophesying and the characters' motivations, even though fortysomething Gus talks a lot about what will happen when life as we know it is gone.
Donnelly's series of brief scenesmostly two-character scenesare well-crafted, with pithy dialogue that's sometimes clever and rarely resorts to contemporary vulgarity for effect. It's performed by an engaging, skillful and attractive cast of eight, several of whom are too young for the ages indicated in the program ( and several of whom should remember that clarity of diction is necessary even in a 40-seat storefront theater ) . Director Timothy Bambara keeps the tempo just right and the look uncluttered on the postage-stamp stage, which benefits from Nicole Schumacher's cleanly-designed, multi-level unit set. Bambara manages to hold audience attention despite the fact that Apocalypso is almost all talk and no action, unless you consider raising a beer or eating cereal worthy stage action.
But here's the thing: Apocalypso! isn't equal to the sum of its parts. The intermission comes at a point when nothing is at stake for the characters, so why should the audience care enough to come back? Better not to have an intermission at all. But that's an easy fix. A more fundamental difficulty is that the eight characters are ordinary and unexceptional in the extreme. Unlike Our Town with its everyday people, the Apocalypso Eight lack folksy wisdom, their community lacks bucolic flavor and Donnelly lacks a poetic touch to enlarge these small people into uplifting characters of interest, despite the gentle and positive message of his work. Drama needs heft, a certain weight and size, and Apocalypso! doesn't have it, whatever merits of craftsmanship Donnelly may demonstrate.
Point of Contention is a newer off-off-Loop theater company offering theatergoers the opportunityat a very reasonable ticket priceto see performers, designers and a director of talent who might have been under their radar heretofore. Whatever its deficiencies, Apocalypso! is a smart ensemble choice for the troupe.