Have You Seen Steve Steven?

Photo/Jim Baldassare

America is at a place right now where our comedies are filled with nervous laughs and we use artificial farce (artifarcial?) to fit in beside neighbors, friends, and family who only serve to make us feel more alienated than ever. How else to explain affectingly disaffecting plays like God's Ear, The Thugs, and this new offering, from Ann Marie Healy, Have You Seen Steve Steven? Here, a sheltered Midwest McFamily grows up, going from charming comedy to frightening satire as Healy plays with memory to dismantle our notions of life. The plot might be a little repetitious, and foreign student Anlor never grows beyond a distracting joke, but the dynamic production is done with such aplomb--from Anne Kauffman's disconcertingly cheery direction to Sue Rees's eerily wide den to the cast's unsettlingly precise characters--that you don't mind going down the rabbit hole.

[Read on] [Also blogged by: Patrick]