"A Kid Like Jake" starts out like a New York magazine story: Manhattan parents obsessing about how to get their toddler into just the right private, expensive, exclusive school. Sure, we all want the best for our kids – but admission essays for parents? Come on. How many of us can identify with that?
Just wait. It'll be worth it. Currently running at the Rep Studio, the play, which is without intermission, is a series of mostly-brief vignettes. Jake's mother, Leigh Williams, is driven and stressed by the process, seemingly almost monomanaical about it. Dad , a psychologist played by Alex Hanna, appears calmer, but maybe it's because he's overwhelmed by the expectations of his much wealthier in-laws. We never see Jake, but soon enough we see Judy, Susan Pellegrino, who sounds like she's a friend of his parents. It turns out, though, she's his nursery school headmistress, to whom mom has cozied up and they seem to be besties.
At least until Judy suggests that they make some oblique referral in those essays to what she refers to as Jake's "gender identity situation". Jake likes girl things. A lot. And it turns out he's not totally happy with equipment that his body has provided him with, either. Mom says it's just a phase. Dad says maybe they need outside help.
Fine work from Williams, who epitomizes high-strung, and Pellegrino, the brash, New York-y boss who says what she thinks in carefully worded deliveries. Hanna's more nuanced character bears careful watching, showing what he's feeling in body language as much as words. Kudos, too, to Jacqueline Thompson, who plays a nurse, and speaking as someone who was a nurse for decades, I say she's perfectly authentic. (Except for the satin scrubs, which are explainable.)
But in that same light, let me complain about Dad, the psychologist, who talks about his patients way too much. Uh, patient confidentiality? That quibble aside, this script by Daniel Pearle draws us in to not one but two scenes of draining emotion that leave any thought of magazine stories behind. Nicely done, and a nod, too, to director Seth Gordon, and scenid designer Gianni Downs.
A Kid Like Jake
through November 16
Rep Studio
314-968-4925