Kill Move Paradise, Graveyard Shift, Sheepdog, 365 Ways to Kill An American, and now also Redtwist’s Rabbit Summer, and more--- Chicago theaters and filmmakers have been trying to get us to wrap our head around the issues that inform the Black Lives Matter movement.
Redtwist Theater Presents Play by Tracey Coyner Lee
Rabbit Summer tackles this political topic in a character-driven story, and this reviewer thinks you will likely take a shining to this production to the extent that you find the characters and their conflicts real and /or meaningful.
There are only three characters. We meet husband and wife, Wilson (Kevin Tre’Von Patterson) and Ruby (Brooke Reams), when their young daughter is away at summer camp. Wilson sees this as an opportunity to kill the rabbit, as it was called before home pregnancy tests were available. He wants a son. As we get to know him, we see how having this son is a much needed validation for Wilson. In this writer’s view, playwright Tracey Coyner Lee’s portrait of the selfishness somewhere in the mix of any drive to procreate is poignant. As the play progresses, however, we find out the many reasons why his wife Ruby isn’t necessarily on board with the idea of bringing another human into our messy world. When Ruby invites her now grief stricken college friend Claire (Deveon Bromby) to stay with them, it puts a dent in Wilson’s love nest plans. Add to the mix, that Claire is grieving her true love’s murder by police, and the fact that Wilson is a cop.
