Sarah Rudinoff and Barbara Dirickson in Well (Alan Alabastro) |
Well
Seattle Repertory Theatre
Through March 5, 2017
Playwright Lisa Kron wants to explore illness and recovery.
Some people recover from illnesses and others can’t. Kron wants to know if a reason
can be found for who does which, and maybe why. In this kooky meta-theatrical
play, Well, that breaks the fourth
and fifth and sixth walls, Kron – who appears in the play as herself (but
actually played by talented Seattle actor Sarah
Rudinoff) – Kron explains all this to the audience at the beginning of the
show.
Kron tells of her mother’s history of being sick with a
mysterious disease that her mother attributes to “allergies.” And yet, even
though mom has been debilitated, she’s been able to move them to a struggling
integrated neighborhood and been active enough as a civic leader to help the
neighborhood heal. Kron wants to link the healing of the neighborhood to the
lack of healing of her mother.
“But,” Kron says, “this play is absolutely not about my
mother!” Kron says she’s just using her personal life to examine the larger
question.