What’s a suburban American housewife living in 1960 with a philandering
husband, two needy kids, a tortured past, and a millennia-old curse to do?
Well, it depends which housewife you ask in Jami Brandli’s new,
too-cute-by-exactly-half play, currently staged by Promethean Theatre
Ensemble.
Brandli tries to imbue everything else in the play with mythic resonance.
Cassandra is, well, Cassandra, cursed by Apollo (a vainglorious, toga-clad
prick) to speak true prophecies no one believes. And neighborhood teen
Antonia (Kellen Robinson), whom Maddy tries to indoctrinate in all things
Emily Post, is just barely Antigone, living with her unyielding
business-tycoon uncle, Creon. Her great moral test comes not from burying a
traitorous brother but from taking part in the civil rights movement. But
for all the classical allusions throughout the play, about the only use
Brandli makes of them, Clementine’s dilemma notwithstanding, is a rather
simplistic admonition that women should make their own decisions.
Through 8/25: Thu-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 2 PM, Athenaeum Theatre, 2936 N. Southport, 773-935-6875, prometheantheatre.org, $29, $24 seniors, $19 students.
