Linda’s playing at Steep Theatre through the 15th of this month and if you want to see something that will nourish your mind for days to come, you might want to drop by and check it out.
It’s very very female. Exceedingly muscular. And it completely chucks convention for the sake of honesty which makes It all the more delightful.
Playwright Penelope Skinner must have pondered long and hard about her protagonist. Linda’s a woman who’s built a dazzling career on pure guts and brains. No fancy education, no family, no name, no mentors. A singular force. When we meet her she’s also a woman who’s reached a certain age and relishes in it the way the king of the hill relishes dispatching the next challenger to his dominion. A splendid specimen of ability and strength.
The home front isn’t as impressive. Personalities as large as hers are seldom dominant in a single sphere and her control is just as complete in her personal life. A daughter from her unexplained youth is biracial, beautiful and broken. Her younger daughter Bridget (Caroline Phillips) from her current husband has some of her mother’s qualities. She’s challenging and ambitious. We don’t know if she can back up either of those traits with talent or brilliance, but she’s fifteen and promising. Her husband Neil (Peter Moore) might as well be on a leash. A schoolteacher who’s put together a band in his mid-life years to add some pizzazz to his existence, he knows to keep his head down and just say yes to whatever he’s asked or and to whatever he’s told to do. Linda’s not cruel really. But you can tell her elbows could draw blood if called to the task.
Despite that you feel an affinity for all of them. Especially Alice (Destini Huston), the elder daughter who’s been modern day crucified for no compelling reason at all and can’t shake the shame. One of her assailants, a former friend, is now a contender for her mother’s throne. Amy’s (Rochelle Therrien) every bit as ambitious as Linda and has an operating mode that includes a much heavier dose of malice. She proves as dangerous to the mother as she was for the daughter.
It’s not only the delicious density that Skinner builds into her plot, it’s also the way director Robin Witt orchestrates the action that makes the unfolding of this tale so softly riveting. You’re waiting for that terrible moment to just happen and can’t be quite sure just when it will. As you wait, you are feted with a story that’s woven as finely as a custom couture gown with the actors acting as the thread.
Cindy Marker as Linda reigned over her role like a master architect. Building her character brick by brick until you were convinced of her indomitability….until it crumbles. Omar Abbas Salem as Luke, with his clever eyes and intoxicating tongue, beautifully exposed the hazards of falling under the spell of bright and handsome men.
What Skinner has done in this fascinating character study is show how human fallibility is unrelentingly gender neutral. That knowledge could help us understand and accept each other more easily.
Linda
Closes September 15th, 2018
Steep Theatre
1115 W. Berwyn
Chicago, IL 60640
773-649-3186
