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Editor’s Note: This performance was reviewed by Picture This Post writer Harold Jaffe on opening night, prior to the widespread COVID-19 related theater closures and the ban on reviews of live performances on Picture This Post. Jackalope Theatre has asked all to heed their message below---
"Due to the public health risk associated with COVID-19, Jackalope Theatre has cancelled the remainder of the run of Fast Company. Jackalope is thankful to all of our patrons for their continued support at this time, and to all of the artists who worked so hard on this production. Donations are being collected to offset the cost of compensating the artists in full for their contracts and for general operating costs while the theater is dark. Online donations can be made at the Jackalope Theatre website, or checks can be mailed to: 1106 W. Thorndale Ave, Chicago IL 60660."
Carla Ching’s Fast Company, now in its Chicago premiere, is a tightly wound family caper that balances comedy and drama on a razor’s edge. The plot bears a certain resemblance to a sliding tile puzzle, constrained elements shifting around each other to reveal glimpses of the complete structure—a resemblance shared by scenic designer Joy Ahn’s deceptively simple, yet remarkably versatile set. Full of fraught histories and shifting alliances, the machinations of this cadre of grifters may leave audiences wondering: who’s conning who?
Layered Performances Weave Tense Rapports
The impact of Fast Company flies or falls on the chemistry of its cast. Fortunately, under Kaiser Ahmed’s direction Catherine Miller’s cast come together to form a delightfully effervescent chemical reaction, in this writer’s view. Both the family relationships and the equally important crew relationships at play are authentic, passionate, and fully inhabited.
Mia Park’s erstwhile tiger mom, and grande dame of the long con, Mable, oozes confidence and authority, but her connections to her kids are strained at best. Vinh Nguyen displays a similar cool as Francis, the eldest son who retired at the top of the game to pursue the (relatively) safer career of David Blaine-style magic and stunts; yet there are moments when he crackles with barely suppressed concern for his siblings. Middle child H is a cocky bad boy, justifiably proud of his talent for forgery and manipulation, but in an instant Fin Coe transforms himself into a sweaty wreck wracked with the bad nerves of a gambling addict at the end of his luck.
The heart of the show, though, is Carolyn Hu Bradley as youngest and only daughter Blue, whose efforts to prove herself by organizing a once-in-a-lifetime job, serve as catalyst for everything that follows. In body language and mannerisms large and small, Bradley captures Blue’s insecurity as the rookie in a family of established con artists, her resentment at the condescension of her mother and brothers, her determination to fix her mistakes and pull off the big score, and her ruthlessness in getting what she needs to make that happen. That her idea for reinvigorating the grifting standards with a touch of game theory (courtesy of her economic studies in college), directly undermines the decidedly old-school Mable is the icing on the cake.
Jackalope Theatre Plays with Time, Space, and Narrative
Of course with a team of professional liars and thieves, no one is going to have a 100% trustworthy take on things. Ching leans into this, using flashbacks to present certain scenes from different perspectives, letting lines take on new meaning in light of the characters’ changing knowledge. These flashbacks are staged in almost cinematic fashion, with the remembered party popping up off to the side to re-deliver their words, while the rememberer considers them anew.
As the story zooms all over the world, from Las Vegas to Rio, from ritzy apartments to dive bars, to meat lockers, the set shuffles and jumps like a deck of cards in the hands of a master prestidigitator. Between scenes (and in some cases even during), stagehands and actors slide doors, walls, and furniture around the stage to define a surprising variety of spaces. The distinct identities of these locations are enhanced by the little details of Ahn’s set and Mara Ishihara Zinky’s props. A butterfly knife here, a bowl of beer nuts there, a set of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle figurines over there, and imagination extrapolates the rest of the decor.
A Uniquely Entertaining Mix
Fast Company is not an easy-to-pin-down show, and that’s part of what makes it such a good fit for Jackalope Theatre. As this blended Asian-American family helps and hinders each other towards a somewhat idiosyncratic version of the American Dream, hijinks ensue, and loyalties are tested. There’s a bit of August Wilson and Arthur Miller here, and a hint of Ocean’s Eleven (or 8), but what Ching and Jackalope end up with is something all its own.
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Note: This is now added to the Picture this Post round up of BEST PLAYS IN CHICAGO, where it will remain until the end of the run. Click here to read – Top Picks for Theater in Chicago NOW – Chicago Plays PICTURE THIS POST Loves
Click here to read more Picture This Post Jackalope Theatre stories.
Editor’s Note-- Full Disclosure:
The author of this review is a personal friend of Projections & Sound Designer/Original Music Steve Labedz and has a keen professional interest in his work.
Title Fast Company
By Carla Ching
Directed by Kaiser Ahmed
Cast:
Fast Company features Carolyn Hu Bradbury (Blue), Fin Coe (H), Vinh Nguyen (Francis), and Mia Park (Mable).
Production team:
Nadya Naumaan (Associate Director) Joy Ahn (scenic design), Slick Jorgensen* (lighting design), Louis Lothan (assistant lighting design), Stefani Azores-Gococo (costume design), Steve Labedz (sound & projection design), Mara Zinky (props design), Vahishta Vafadari (vocal coach), Almanya Narula (fight choreography), AJ Sacco (magic consultant), Danielle Stack (production manager), Catherine Miller (casting director), Jackie Marschke (stage manager) & Anna Brockway (assistant stage manager).
Photos courtesy of Jackalope Theatre
Note: Picture This Post reviews are excerpted by Theatre in Chicago
About the Author:
Harold Jaffe is a poet, playwright, amateur trapeze artist, freelance greeting card designer, and now, unexpectedly, a theater critic. He earned a BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Olin College and since returning to Chicago has worked extensively with Cave Painting Theater Company and the late great Oracle Productions. His chapbook Perpetual Emotion Machine is now available at Women & Children First, and his reviews of shows around town are available right here.
