Playwright: Erika Sheffer. At: Steppenwolf Theatre Company, 1650 N. Halsted St. Tickets: 312-335-1650; Article Link Here ; $20-$78. Runs through: May 11
Behind every immigration lies secrets. Our nation may promise the tired, poor and homeless a fresh start, but folks rarely abandon the mother country without good reason, and the circumstances leading to their departure often involve decisions they would rather hide from their new neighbors.
The family now comfortably settled in a gaudily decorated ( the living-room carpet could be a remnant from a hotel lobby ) two-story Brooklyn bungalow fled Soviet Russia 15 years earlier. Papa Misha runs a car service, Mama Diana works at a bakery. Their teenage children, Alex and Mira, attend school and help out at Dad's company. Alex also works at a Verizon store, handing over his wages to Mom, while Mira dreams of adventures beyond her strict parents' purview. This domesticity does not extend to newly arrived Boris, who conducts his business according to old-world rules—a business involving criminal activity so morally reprehensible that no well-meaning slogans regarding "cultural diversity" can render it acceptable.
The value of Erika Sheffer's play is its meticulous dissection of the ease with which ostensibly respectable people justify providing for their own at the expense of others, and the origins of many an American success story in the exploitation of innocents. The suave Boris is skillful at recruiting, offering his nephew and niece first a sympathetic ear, then the prospect of lucrative rewards for minor risks, and finally, threats of violence and/or humiliation ( for adolescents, even mild infractions can take on weight when threatened with exposure ). We can guess at why Boris hires Alex to drive young female "models" from the airport to a remote location west of the Hudson, but the tone of voice when the boy's employer speaks of "job training" forces us to re-evaluate the entire clan dynamic.
Spending more than two hours contemplating the full spectrum of a topic we are accustomed to confronting only briefly on, say, Law and Order: SVU is not an attractive proposition for audiences, but director Yasen Peyankov has instructed Alan Wilder and Mariann Mayberry to lend Misha and Diana's marital bickering an unexaggerated affection and Tim Hopper to likewise resist action-movie clichés in his portrayal of Boris, reflecting the placid mask that ultimately conceals dark deeds at sufficient distance. Lingering in our memories, however, are Melanie Neilan, playing all the naive little sisters menaced by seductive predators, and Aaron Himelstein, representing all the loyal elder brothers who must choose between protecting them or embracing their abuse.
