Sept. 03--Mordant family dysfunction fuels this 2011 work from Nicky Silver, featuring a patriarch dying of cancer, a matriarch more interested in redecorating the living room than her spouse's terminal condition, and two adult children who lay the blame for their myriad problems at the feet of their parents. No one is likable; everyone is awful -- let the recriminations and punchlines fly.
And yet this staging from director Derek Bertelsen for Aston Rep never quite nails the play's style. It is forever in search of the right rhythm and this is key, because the dialogue is meant to be so blunt and so dark that it's inherently comic. But if the rhythm never comes together -- if the beats are off -- it plays too flippant, like a sitcom straining for laughs that never come.
There are a handful of moments that work here: When Aja Wiltshire's recovering alcoholic falls off the wagon and finds a bit of inner backbone, the shifting power dynamics between two strangers played by Drew Wieland and Matthew Harris, and a final speech wherein Susan Fay's character informs her children in no uncertain terms that it is time to grow up.
At the play's core is an undercurrent of deep, unresolved loneliness and the strange, often desperate measures we take to escape it. Not enough of that comes through.
REVIEW: "The Lyons" by Aston Rep
2 STARS
Through Sept. 27 at the Raven Theater, 6157 N. Clark St; $20 at 773-828-9129 or astonrep.com.
