A Memory of Two Mondays

Greenhouse Theater Center

Chicago

(773) 404-7336

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A Memory of Two Mondays “packs one heck of an emotional punch,” said Chris Jones in the Chicago Tribune. Another one of Arthur Miller’s “dramatic cries of anguish on behalf of the working stiff,” this lesser-known one-act takes place in a Brooklyn, N.Y., auto-parts warehouse. The playwright’s “authorial alter-ego,” Bert, takes a job there to make a few extra bucks before heading off to college, and ends up meeting an interesting array of characters. There’s “the middle-age guy who needs a raise and more responsibility; the fellows who drink too much; the sharp-eyed youngster watching his dreams of art and poetry slip away.” Not much happens to these world-weary fellows as they punch the clock, day in and day out, but director Steven Fedoruk’s well-wrought depiction of their everyday lives sharply captures Miller’s signature combination of “intimacy and truth.”

The 14-member ensemble brings tremendous vitality to an otherwise second-rate Miller play, said Hedy Weiss in the Chicago Sun-Times. “It’s a good bet that Miller thought he was showing compassion for these people, trapped in such marginal, dead-end existences.” Yet, as is often the case with the playwright, there’s also a “heavy whiff of condescension” here. Fortunately, Brandon Ruiter’s performance as Bert mutes Miller’s superciliousness, while strong supporting performances ensure that the other characters transcend stereotype. Vincent Lonergan plays the lifer of the shop, while J.P. Pierson stands out as Bert’s poetically inclined co-worker. Together, the three actors make this Memory memorable.