The most unlikely of roommates – a teenage girl and her much-older uncle — embark on physical and emotional journey together in Greg Pierce’s Slowgirl, The girl, a wise-cracking, know-it-all American, arrives on short notice to visit her uncle in faraway Costa Rica. The girl is getting away from a terrible tragedy in which she has played some role. Not many of the circumstances about this even were communicated in advance to her uncle Sterling. He hasn’t seen the girl for almost nine years. It’s a good thing that the play opens with Sterling dozing in a hammock. That’s about the only sleep he’ll get during his niece’s visit. The 90-minute play doesn’t pack as much punch as one might expect, given its prestigious credentials. It was part of Steppenwolf’s 2013 season in Chicago, and played the following year at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles. Pierce’s dialogue is anything but fluid. And that’s intentional. When 17-year-old Becky arrives at her uncle’s modest “jungle” retreat, it’s clear she is going to do most of the talking. She rattles on at top speed as Sterling looks on in disbelief. She spits out more words in 10 minutes than he probably has heard all year. She asks him questions, like a curious teen. But she also makes grand pronouncements, also like a curious teen. She has very definite ideas about her parents, for instance. One guesses the parents wouldn’t want to be portrayed in those terms, especially in front of relatives.
Becky’s salty language rolls off her tongue as if she speaks this way every day, which she probably does. She nonchalantly asks her uncle where he keeps his booze and pot. Sterling’s story comes much later in the show, but it is delivered with superb skill by actor Peter Reeves. Although it is a story from years ago, Sterling still has trouble telling it. He delivers it haltingly and almost without emotion. He is candid about the nature of his undoing, which has to do with his former law practice. He focuses on how his error not only cost him his job, a friendship, and a marriage, but also drove a wedge between him and his sister’s family. It’s clear he misses his sister, who once was a childhood ally. Once Sterling has Becky’s trust, she opens up and reveals some additional details of the event back home. It does not put Becky in a favorable light. The incident involves a party (no parents at home, of course) and a mentally diminished girl they have nicknamed “Slowgirl.” Becky seems to be on the fence about how she feels about Slowgirl. She knows she should be friendlier to her, but yet, it isn’t “cool” among her peers to show too much kindness to this kid. (Isn’t adolescence great?) Although actor Sara Zientek is almost too old to be portraying a 17-year-old, she certainly captures the energy, the moves and the fears of a girl Becky’s ago. One of the play’s best scenes is at night, when Becky cannot cope with the screeching of iguana nails against the corrugated tin roof. As if the audience hasn’t already realized it, Becky shows us how purely frightened a child that age can be. Kudos to director C. Michael Wright, who tames the herky-jerky nature of the character’s conversation and finds ways to mine sympathy for both characters. Credit also goes to Keith Pitts, whose set design moves in unexpected ways to reveal a completely different environment. It is a very cool trick of stage production that works best in a very small theater space. He also creates just enough foliage to suggest the Costa Rica setting. Sterling’s home contains brilliantly hued pots and jugs, also suggesting the locale. The Costa Rica flavor is also supported by the lighting design and the numerous animal noises heard throughout the play. In sum, Slowgirl achieves its modest aspirations. It doesn’t try to change the world, but it may give the parents in the audience something to learn about how a teen’s mind works.
