What is it about the psyche of humans – or at least American humans - being mesmerized by disasters of all sizes? From small (a fight broke out in the first two minutes of the Blues hockey game the night I saw this play and of course the crowd loved it) to large (which is why the replays in auto racing are almost always crashes), there's an almost hypnotizing draw to it, until we can stand to watch no longer. Your mileage may vary, of course, and some turn away faster than others.
Writers in particular latch onto them. They're – well, they're dramatic. Family relationships seem to lend themselves particularly well to this, and "Pterodactyls", the current production at St. Louis Actors' Studio, is a contender for the be-all-and-end-all of the genre. Not, of course, that there's anything wrong with that, just fair warning. Even those who walk in and find themselves muttering, "Oh, God, another dysfunctional family," will end up pulled in.
Author Nicky Silver gives us rock-star-quality crazy with the Duncans, Mom (the shopper), daughter (the dazed), son (the prodigal) and Dad (the detatched), all in a Main Line suburb of Philadelphia. And, oh, the daughter's suitor, who's a server at a salad restaurant. It's twentieth-century drawing room comedy, the offspring of years of Edward Albee and John Guare.
Yes, comedy it is, at least for a while, even as we quickly realize the surrealness of it all.
While there's plenty of looniness to go around, the show seems to really belong to Penney Kols, who plays Grace, the drinking, ranting, oblivious mother, with surgical deftness. But it's a strong cast all round. Nathan Bush, the long-gone son, wears an anger that, like his clothes, is too big for his being. Daughter Betsy Bowman, the most flagrantly neurotic of the group, carries her anxieties even when she's not speaking.
The banker (of course) father, merely seems totally out of touch; Whit Reichert carefully carries him beyond that as things really begin to unravel. And then there's James Slover, the young gent who's brought into the household after he proposes. His pompadour and his good-looking legs hold him in good stead, as does his wide-eyed face. And, uh, he was raised in a Catholic orphanage.
Definitely do not bring small children who love dinosaurs to this show, despite Patrick Huber's wonderfully created one that emerges as all else crumples. All others welcome.
Pterodactyls
St. Louis Actors' Studio
Gaslight Theatre
through November 24, 2013