Northlight Theatre
Skokie, Ill.
(847) 673-6300
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Among the many recent plays involving Alzheimer’s disease, Bruce Graham’s new work stands out by “smartly just sticking to the straightforward,” said Steven Oxman in Variety. Avoiding any grand, sweeping pronouncements, the modest story focuses on Gunner, an “old-school Irish” father, and his steadfast refusal to cede control even after his family agrees that he can no longer look after himself. Despite the awkward use of flashbacks “to detail some emotional baggage that needs unpacking,” Graham mostly keeps this a “quiet play written in simple strokes.” That clears the way for “performances of aching restraint” from Tony-winning actors John Mahoney, as Gunner, and Rondi Reed, as his wife of 51 years, plus an admirable turn by Thomas J. Cox, as the couple’s timid, middle-aged son.
In Mahoney’s case, restraint in no way means timorous withdrawal, said Chris Jones in the Chicago Tribune. Delivering what is “the best work I’ve ever seen him do on stage,” he gives us a “proud, flinty man” who’s not resigned at all to the slipping away of his lucidity. That show of strength is important, because it helps us understand what is being lost. Graham has focused the play’s second half on Gunner’s intention to kill himself before his faculties completely desert him, bringing out various end-of-life issues that, while ratcheting up the dramatic tension, seem out of place. The “trio of towering performances” in this production are enough alone to make the family’s struggles instantly compelling for anyone who has had to deal with “anything approaching this situation.”
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