The trappings of the “American Dream” and suburban life have been explored in every artistic medium for decades. But what do the age-old questions about the hunger for upward mobility and its attendant isolationism mean when asked during our current economic and socio-political conditions? Kicking off the 2010-2011 season for the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Detroit, written by Lisa D’Amour and directed with purposeful ambiguity by ensemble member Austin Pendleton, manages to stimulate new questions about suburban decay with a suitably comic touch.
While the setting of Detroit is more a metaphorical than literal device in the play, it sets the tone of things falling apart: American cities, homes (“first-ring” suburban houses built in the ‘60s), ideals, marriages, individuals… All we once thought we knew and wanted for ourselves as Americans quickly turning on itself. No more safe havens, particularly from our own humanity. These are heady, eternal issues, but one of the triumphs of Detroit is the deceptively light presentation of this material.
The outward plot of Detroit is paper-thin: a “settled” suburban couple named Ben and Mary (played pitch-perfect by Ian Barford and Laurie Metcalf of Roseanne fame) throw a barbeque to welcome their new neighbors Kenny (a hilarious Kevin Anderson) and Sharon (a fiery Kate Arrington, coming off a star turn in A Parallelogram) who have moved into the empty house next door. What starts out with the usual forced and highly-socialized pleasantries soon unravels as back-stories and secrets are revealed and as the two couples begin to exert an indeterminate influence on each other.
The choice of playing an older and younger couple “against” one another is inspired: the older couple shaken out of their torpor and loneliness as the younger couple is provided with a window into their own potential future. And there is ample, though cleverly underplayed subtext sprinkled throughout the play: the dream of suburbia a parallel for the dream of America, both built on ideals that soon inverted; private vs. public selves; fear of the “other”; the suppression of our primal (and hedonistic) selves. As with most stories dealing with the dark underbelly of suburban life, sexual frustration (and its reckless release) is never too far below the surface (though again, in Detroit it is but one of many threads woven into the story more for provocation than resolution). Even a late turn by longtime ensemble member Robert Breuler, which on the surface seems designed to provide some closure, only manages to raise more questions.
As with so many of Steppenwolf’s productions, Detroit is supremely engaging and provocative. The set design by Kevin Depinet is superb, the writing and direction artful, and the ensemble cast thoroughly likeable and winning throughout. By the time Detroit reaches its pointedly post-9/11 (and post-apocalyptic?) conclusion with Ben and Mary facing either re-birth or ruin, you will have laughed in empathy and recognition of self and be left with many questions about the uncertain future awaiting us all.
Above photo:(counterclockwise from upper left) - Ensemble members Kate Arrington, Ian Barford, Kevin Anderson and Laurie Metcalf in Steppenwolf Theatre Company's production of Detroit by Lisa D'Amour (playing through November 7th), directed by ensemble member Austin Pendleton. Photo by Michael Brosilow.
