Gapers Block has ceased publication.

Gapers Block published from April 22, 2003 to Jan. 1, 2016. The site will remain up in archive form. Please visit Third Coast Review, a new site by several GB alumni.
 Thank you for your readership and contributions. 

TODAY

Tuesday, March 19

Gapers Block
Search

Gapers Block on Facebook Gapers Block on Flickr Gapers Block on Twitter The Gapers Block Tumblr


A/C
« Court Theatre Stages a Low-Key Iphigenia in Aulis Horrible Bosses 2, The Penguins of Madagascar & Happy Valley »

Theater Wed Nov 26 2014

Strawdog's Desperate Dolls Gets Evil Wrong But Suspense Right

By Amien Essif

GB-Strawdog_HugenHall_DesperateDolls_2.jpg

Joe Mack and Hillary Marren. Photo by Tom McGrath.

One motel room is like another. It's a line that's threaded throughout Desperate Dolls, a new play by Darren Callahan that had its world premiere under the direction of Michael Driscoll at Strawdog Theatre on Monday. The point is certainly well made, considering the entire plot unfolds on a single set--a motel room, portrayed as several different motel rooms scattered around 1968 Hollywood, a time and place that is said to be composed entirely of motel rooms that all look alike and contain horror stories of their own.

Played confidently by Joe Mack, Sunny Jack's self-proclaimed "triple threat" status as director, producer, and writer has more to do with the size of his budget than the size of his talent. His foray into female-centric films is played up as well-intentioned, but if you respect women, this might not be a good enough excuse. Auditioning them for his B-movies in--you guessed it--a motel room, he signs three ambitious and curvaceous young "dolls" who also become his friends, with benefits not defined in their contracts.

The women--Matchbox (Alex Fisher), Pretty Sexy (Kelsey Shipley), and the Vil (Hillary Marren)--are no one's dolls, at least not when they arrive in the desperate city. But, just like their mentor and sometime exploiter Jack, they are outmatched by something darker than themselves. With one or two scruples they flirt with the pure grain evil that looms just beyond the flimsy door and the clamoring phone and won't be turned away by a Do Not Disturb door hanger.

It's a pretty good setup until you finally meet the villain, whose performance of evil requires a little boost from the audience's imagination. Jim Poole plays "Captain," a high-powered Hollywood agent who comes out of nowhere with a knack for mind control that certainly wasn't gleaned from How to Win Friends and Influence People.

Conveying an unsettling interest in Jack's perpetually underdressed clients, he is the Devil with a contract in hand, and the trope is laid on pretty thick. It's not so much Poole's fault as the fault of the writing. And it's not really the writer who is to blame so much as our collective Puritanical belief in diabolism, evil so evil that it could never have an explanation and therefore defies the actor's request for a motivation. That said, Poole conjures a Dracula type rather than the Hannibal Lecter that the plot begs for, grinding out muah-ha-has when he should have been smiling opaquely.

It's not just Captain who delivers lines that would have been better left unspoken. Desperate Dolls is propped up with a few "Wait, are you telling me...?" moments where the plot was already strong enough to stand on its own.

Nevertheless, some of the grimmer scenes are indeed grim. Chekhov famously said that if there's a gun on stage in act one, it has to be fired by the end of the story. But you'll have to see Desperate Dolls to find out if the same rule applies to hacksaws and hatchets.

Perhaps the most visceral achievement of the play is communicating the fear of suffocation by motel room that becomes a metaphor for the whole of Hollywood: The luxury of clean linens is immediately unmade by the first romp on the bed, which inevitably ends in disappointment at best, violation at worst, and always anxiety over the next phone call or knock at the door that could bring either stardom or the final nightmare.

Unless you have a clinical phobia of prefab lodgings, Desperate Dolls is worth seeing just for that insight.

Desperate Dolls, with an over-18 restriction, is being performed at Strawdog Theatre's Hugen Hall, 3829 N. Broadway, through December 23. Performances are Sundays at 12 and 8pm and Mondays and Tuesdays at 8pm. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased online or by calling 866-811-4111.

 
GB store
GB store

Architecture Tue Nov 03 2015

Paul Goldberger Describes the "Pragmatism and Poetry" of Frank Gehry's Architecture in His New Book

By Nancy Bishop

Architecture critic Paul Goldberger talks about Frank Gehry's life and work in a new book.
Read this feature »

Steve at the Movies Fri Jan 01 2016

Best Feature Films & Documentaries of 2015

By Steve Prokopy

Read this column »

Blogroll

ACRE
An Angry White Guy
Antena
AREA Chicago
ArchitectureChicago Plus
Arts Engagement Exchange
The Art Letter
Art or Idiocy?
Art Slant Chicago
Art Talk Chicago
Bad at Sports
Bite and Smile
Brian Dickie of COT
Bridgeport International
Carrie Secrist Gallery
Chainsaw Calligraphy
Chicago Art Blog
Chicago Art Department
Chicago Art Examiner
Chicago Art Journal
Chicago Artists Resource
Chicago Art Map
Chicago Art Review
Chicago Classical Music
Chicago Comedy Examiner
Chicago Cultural Center
Chicago Daily Views
Chicago Film Examiner
Chicago Film Archives
Chicago Gallery News
Chicago Uncommon
Collaboraction
Contemporary Art Space
Co-op Image Group
Co-Prosperity Sphere
Chicago Urban Art Society
Creative Control
Defibrillator
Devening Projects
Digressions
DIY Film
ebersmoore
The Exhibition Agency
The Flatiron Project
F newsmagazine
The Gallery Crawl...
Galerie F
The Gaudy God
Happy Dog Gallery
HollywoodChicago
Homeroom Chicago
I, Homunculus
Hyde Park Artcenter Blog
InCUBATE
Joyce Owens: Artist on Art
J-Pointe
Julius Caesar
Kasia Kay Gallery
Kavi Gupta Gallery
Rob Kozlowski
Lookingglass Theatre Blog
Lumpen Blog
Marquee
Mess Hall
N'DIGO
Neoteric Art
NewcityArt
NewcityFilm
NewcityStage
Not If But When
Noun and Verb
On Film
On the Make
Onstage
Peanut Gallery
Peregrine Program
Performink
The Poor Choices Show
Pop Up Art Loop
The Post Family
The Recycled Film
Reversible Eye
Rhona Hoffman Gallery
Roots & Culture Gallery
SAIC Blog
The Seen
Sharkforum
Sisterman Vintage
Site of Big Shoulders
Sixty Inches From Center
Soleil's To-Do's
Sometimes Store
Steppenwolf.blog
Stop Go Stop
Storefront Rebellion
TOC Blog
Theater for the Future
Theatre in Chicago
The Franklin
The Mission
The Theater Loop
Thomas Robertello Gallery
threewalls
Time Tells Tony Wight Gallery
Uncommon Photographers
The Unscene Chicago
The Visualist
Vocalo
Western Exhibitions
What's Going On?
What to Wear During an Orange Alert?
You, Me, Them, Everybody
Zg Gallery

GB store

 

Events


A/C on Flickr

Join the A/C Flickr Pool.



About A/C

A/C is the arts and culture section of Gapers Block, covering the many forms of expression on display in Chicago. More...
Please see our submission guidelines.

Editor: Nancy Bishop, nancy@gapersblock.com
A/C staff inbox: ac@gapersblock.com

Archives

 

A/C Flickr Pool
 Subscribe in a reader.

GB store

GB Store

GB Buttons $1.50

GB T-Shirt $12

I ✶ Chi T-Shirts $15