If you attempt to summarize a Rebecca Gilman play for someone who’s not already familiar with her work, you run the risk of sounding like you’re describing an after-school special or, possibly, an episode of Law and Order. A Gilman play usually features a group of strong-minded characters caught up in situations beyond their control, leading to serious moral dilemmas. So far her characters have dealt with racism (Spinning Into Butter), stalking (Boy Gets Girl), prostitution (Blue Surge), materialism and debt (Dollhouse), midcareer malaise (The Sweetest Swing in Baseball), and whether to have children (The Crowd You’re in With). Her latest, Luna Gale, fits with the rest of the group: briefly described, it’s about a social worker trying to determine the fate of a six-month-old baby.
Gilman first began thinking about the backdrop of Luna Gale several years ago when she saw a Frontline documentary about social workers in Maine. “They had such absolute power,” she remembers. “So much of what happened depended on them. The only clear social policy is how to deal with problems after everything else has failed and a kid’s in danger. They don’t deal with the bigger issues that lead to those situations.”
Gilman’s critics, both in this paper and elsewhere, have complained that her characters’ points of view break down too neatly and schematically, more like a debate than real drama. She leaves herself open to similar charges with Luna Gale, but she says that she had no idea about the characters’ secrets or the various twists the plot would take when she first sat down to write. “I know the first two or three scenes,” she says, “but that’s why I’m slow, because things reveal themselves.”
1/18 through 2/23, various timesGoodman Theatre170 N. Dearborn312-443-3800goodmantheatre.org$12.50-$67
