The Chicago theater world proudly struts its stuff in Luna Gale, the new Rebecca Gilman play now in an L.A. run at the Kirk Douglas Theater. Gilman wrote the play for Chicago’s Goodman Theater where she is an artistic associate. After a successful world-premiere run earlier this year, the production has been transferred to L.A., with the same cast, crew and director (Robert Falls) reprising their work. This explains why everything about the piece seems so well-honed, so crisp and sharp. Even the actors’ diction is praiseworthy; you can hear every word they say, a rarity for L.A.
Luna Gale a domestic drama that deals with the complex issue of child protection. The marvelous Mary Beth Fisher plays Caroline, a beleaguered social worker in Iowa who must decide who should get custody of Luna Gale, a baby who has been taken away from her meth-head young parents, Karlie (Reyna de Courcy) and Peter (Colin Sphar). Caroline likes both of these troubled kids and believes that, with the aid of rehab and counseling, they can overcome their problems and give the kid a decent upbringing.
Opposing her is Karlie’s mother Cindy (Jordan Baker), a hospital nurse who insists that her daughter is too unstable to be trusted. “I’m the only one who can raise this child safely and properly,” she tells Caroline. But Cindy is a born-again evangelist awaiting the Rapture, a fact that not only distresses Karlie but Caroline as well.
There are further complications: Caroline’s superior, a tight-assed bureaucrat named Cliff (Erik Hellman), comes down on Cindy’s side for a variety of reasons, most of them selfish and meretricious. And Pastor Jay (Richard Thieriot) also shows up to support Cindy’s case. The big confrontation scene between Caroline and Pastor Jay–it’s humanist vs. dogmatist here–is one of the highlights of Gilman’s tense, engrossing drama.
Luna Gale is a lot more than just a custody-rights story; it is peopled with complex, multi-dimensional characters struggling to find their way in a tough, troublesome world. Thanks to budget cutbacks, Caroline is carrying an enormous workload and is severely stressed-out; she almost breaks down when she learns that one of her former wards, Lourdes (Melissa DuPrey), has died of an overdose. Then come revelations about sexual abuse (not just Karlie’s but her own) to additionally haunt her. To heal herself, though, she hangs in and keeps on fighting the good fight. That serves as an example to young Peter, who manages to pull himself together and become an adult, a mensch.
Dark as Luna Gale is LUNA GALE is at times, it is not devoid of light and hope as the play’s complicated story unfolds on a revolving set by Todd Rosenthal, yet another of the many Chicago-based theater artists connected to this admirable production.
