Kevin McKeon and Hannah Mootz in Slowgirl (Steven Sterne) |
Slowgirl
Seattle Public Theater
Through April 12, 2015
Some plays stay with you a long time. Such is the effect of
Seattle Public Theater’s presentation of Slowgirl
by Greg Pierce. The story unfolds without urgency, as 17 year-old Becky
arrives in Costa Rica to visit her uncle where he lives in a remote jungle
hideaway.
Becky (Hannah Mootz)
has diarrhea of the mouth, motormouthing through her uncle Sterling’s reactions
(Kevin McKeon) and disturbing his
peace. We can tell this because everything she moves he moves back. She is very
much a city girl, and when she finds out the cabin has no doors and any animal
is free to enter, she’s aghast.
Over the course of the 90 minute play, we find out more about
the family and the circumstances that Becky finds herself in. Becky is in
trouble. A house party full of schoolmates included the "slow" girl classmate
that they all make fun of. They call her, “Slowgirl,” as if it is her name.
This young woman jumped out a window at the party and landed
on concrete and is in the hospital. Becky feels like she is unfairly targeted for blame. Sterling sister, Becky’s mom, has sent Becky to her uncle
for a few days. Sterling has been an absentee uncle and hasn’t seen Becky or
her sister for years. So, this is an uneasy family reunion. Becky longs to be
believed and thinks everyone is only saying they know she wasn’t responsible,
but they really think she is.
It’s definitely not a stereotypical framework. The location
is interesting (with a lovely set mainly of wooden hut-like support beams and a
large cut backdrop of lush greens by Andrea
Bush). The characters are unique. Sterling has an interesting story to tell
about his own life, and Becky is a very advanced teen, with a lot of freedom to
talk about sex and other taboo subjects without reticence.
Pierce does a great job of creating a modern young teen girl
for the most part (there are a few moments that might take you out of your
suspension of disbelief, but very few). Becky is very plausible. Her adjustment
to the jungle and her uncle is believable. She is sometimes not very nice to her uncle,
which is also somewhat unexpected.
McKeon is a master of quiet roles, brooding men who don’t
ever blurt out what they’re feeling. He just portrayed a similar role in SPT’s Humble Boy. His lack of conversation
makes him a mystery we want to know more about. A scene where Becky dissects
his motivations is very revealing and interesting, with the added effect that
we don’t actually know what we’ve learned about him. We can never really know
Sterling; we can just see what he does. He is constantly surprising, therefore.
Kelly Kitchens
directs with a solid sense of scenic unfolding. The play seems to be mostly
about their relationship for most of it, until the very end. At that point, a
climactic revelation changes everything we thought we knew, and brings us back
to the precipitating event with the disabled classmate.
The script smartly ends the play there and we are left
wondering what will happen after. And that’s one reason it lingers and haunts.
But we have witnessed a profound change in their relationship which is very
satisfying.
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