How I Learned to Drive, a Theatre Unbound production at The Neighborhood House on 11/17/08
By: David de Young
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How I Learned to Drive publicity photo, courtesy of Theatre Unbound
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Theatre Unbound’s Twin Cities production of the play opened November 7th at the Neighborhood House in the Paul & Sheila Wellstone Center in St. Paul in a production directed by Maggie Scanlan.
Though some of the play’s central themes include sexual abuse, incest, alcoholism, and depression (not to mention driving, the metaphor that ties the play together), How I Learned to Drive leaves one feeling contemplative rather than full-on despondent. This same material might have had the latter effect with more heavy-handed treatment than Volgel’s and Scanlan’s. With Theatre Unbound's production, I was perhaps most struck by the ease with which the characters slip into the disturbing situations that arise in this play, and by how familiar their stories sounded.
The play’s action centers around the relationship between Li’l Bit (played by Samantha Cullen Maronek) and her Uncle Peck (Eric Knutson). The play opens with Li’l bit introducing herself at the age of 17 in 1969. Christopher Kehoe, Sheila Regan, and Sasha Walloch fill out the other roles as a Greek chorus and play Li’l Bit’s grandfather, mother and aunt respectively. Other roles include a cocktail waiter and various high school classmates.
The play’s structure is set up like a driving instruction film (complete with piped in narration) with segment titles like “Idling in Neutral” or “Going from 1st gear into 2nd.” Its timeline covers Li’l Bit’s life from birth through middle age, and though it spends most of its time in the early '60s and '70s, it does not proceed in a linear manner. Only bit by bit do we piece together how this close and loving, but also co-dependent and unhealthy relationship between Li’l Bit and her uncle developed over the years.
Maronek is a convincing Li'l Bit at any age she plays the character, injecting just the right amount of naïveté so you can see how she might have gotten into this mess with initially good intentions (one of which was an attempt to help keep her Uncle Peck sober). Knutson plays Uncle Peck in such a way that we develop a sympathy for him – at least as much sympathy as one can feel for an alcoholic pedophile anyway - necessary to make this play work.
Ultimately, How I Learned to Drive is a modern tragedy, and part of its success is how it handles this serious and dark material without being entirely serious and dark. In fact, there are plenty of jokes, many early ones centering around the size of Li’l Bit’s breasts as she comes of age, but it’s difficult to know when you should be laughing and when it’s inappropriate to do so. The whole audience is in the same boat, however, and the laughs come at different times for different people. This was also a sign that there will be as many reactions to this play as there are audience members on a given night.
Though Maronek and Knutson are both outstanding, HILTD not a two person show. Each of the actors in the chorus gets a chance to come forward and have their moment in the spotlight. Sheila Regan has a particularly memorable scene playing a drunken woman giving advice on how women should take their liquor. When not actively employed, the chorus often sinks to the rear of the stage, but director Scanlan still makes use of them when they are out of commission, often turned facing the back of the stage like robots who have been put away for the night. Even while in the shadow though, they react to the story being played out in the foreground by Uncle Peck and his niece.
Director Scanlan and her technical crew employ the simple set as part of the metaphor of the play as a whole. The furniture is draped in cloth when the curtain rises, but the pieces are uncovered as needed like memories being recalled. Otherwise, the only items on stage are some old car parts from the 1950s strewn around at the back of the stage. Set, lights, and a soundtrack of love songs from the 1960s all work together wonderfully to create a show you won’t soon forget.
How I Learned to Drive runs through November 23rd at The Neighborhood House at the Paul & Sheila Wellstone Center
Location Info:
The Neighborhood House
Artist Info: Theatre Unbound
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