Rabbit Hole

To continue my week's theatre binge (4 shows in a week), I saw Rabbit Hole at the Goodman's mainstage. Scored a cheap seat on a Sunday night.

David Lindsay-Abaire is one of my favorite playwrights. Plays like Devil Inside and Wonder of the World have a great way of spinning things out of control, taking you on a wild ride that is just barely plausible, but resolves everything terribly cleverly in the end. They are scary and manic, not unlike Durang, but even more intelligent. Rabbit Hole is clearly by the same playwright, but a much more mature, possibly better medicated one.

Rabbit Hole tells the story of a small family who grieve in their separate ways the accidental death of their 5 year old son. Unlike his other works, Rabbit Hole is fiercely realistic, decidedly un-crazy. It is well-paced and very good at showing the subtlties of grief. Because of the rough subject matter, people openly dislike it. But a guy on the bus was very impressed at the accuracy.

I liked it. I know alot of people who didn't, including some of the COP. It wasn't my favorite Lindsay-Abair play, mostly because I prefer the crazy. But it was well-done. Not inspired, but well-done. It was refreshing to go to the Goodman and actually like what I saw. My only beef was all the sobbing pregnant ladies around me. The play is well-known enough that they should have known what the subject was. I didn't find it depressing, just painful. Then again, I left my first viewing of American Beauty elated.

on Pandora: "People in the City (Modjo Mix)" - Air