There was a time when air travel was considered glamorous, but then, there was a time when baseball fans wore suits and hats to Wrigley Field (the past truly is a foreign country). The three veteran flight attendants at the center of Marisa Wegrzyn’s Mud Blue Sky, now onstage at A Red Orchid Theatre, bear little resemblance to the Pan Am stewardesses of the old days, with their fashionable uniforms and youthful air of freedom and adventure. Wegrzyn’s characters are lower-middle-class grunts at the mercy of cash-strapped airlines and rude passengers who leave unspeakable messes in the lavatory. Whereas the job may have once provided fresh opportunities for women—as long as they fit a certain mold—this play’s trio seem convinced they’re headed nowhere.
Wegrzyn deftly blends comedy and despair as the characters attempt to cut loose—pot, porn, and cognac are involved—and forget that each of them is staring down a future that’s either uncertain, uninspiring, or both. We learn that Angie is stuck tending to her elderly mother, that Sam has an adolescent son who despises her, that Jonathan can’t decide whether to go to college, and that Beth is mulling over early retirement since she figures she’ll be laid off soon anyway.
4/18-5/25: Thu-Sat 8 PM, Sun 3 PM A Red Orchid Theatre 1531 N. Wells 312-943-8722aredorchidtheatre.org $25-$30
