We Should Totally Hang Out Sometime

Amicable – Theatre Above the Law

Amicable, Theatre Above the Law’s final show for its third season, finds a group of six people on a Metra train. Each seems to coincidentally know or have met one or two of the other people on the train. One pair of friends or one pair of exes running into each other on their morning commute is a common coincidence. But every person on this train making one of these connections, sometimes more than one? Something strange is going on here…

I won’t go into the particulars since letting the story unfold was one of the joys of the show. Sufficed to say, the focus of the show is the little lies we tell ourselves and each other to make endings easier, but only end up making them worse. The well-intentioned lies like “we’ll still be friends” or the endless rounds of invites to things you know you won’t actually go to only prolong the ending. We don’t like to tell people it’s over or the reasons why. It feels mean. But to the six people on this train, that little bit of honesty then may save them a lot of honesty now.

If I had to level one complaint, it would be that the show pretty effectively telegraphs it’s set up fairly early on, and then takes a little longer to get to fully revealing it and starting on resolving it than I would like. That’s a pretty small complaint, though. At about 90 minutes, with no intermission, the show moves pretty well throughout. One element of the story I liked was the equal time and treatment for all kinds of relationships, be they friendships, family, or romances. Too often, only romantic relationships get this kind of exploration and reverence, especially for the break-ups. All our close relationships are part of shaping who we are, and it was nice to see them, and their endings, treated with the same care as romances.

The actors, across the board were excellent. I particularly liked Abby Walburn as Nancy, but all the actors did a great job. It’s really an ensemble piece, and they all managed to give and take focus well, remaining engaged in the scenes when they weren’t active players while not stealing focus. I also want to single out Izzy Shafer, a 5th grade student, both in the show and real life. She did a great job holding her own against older and more seasoned actors.

Ultimately, Amicable was a very enjoyable look at a very unenjoyable part of life. Like I said, I don’t want to spoil the set up or the resolution, so what I’ll say is this. Underneath that setup is a thoughtful and engaging look about what we owe each other and ourselves when a relationship ends.

Highly Recommended

Reviewed by Kevin Curran

Presented May 9-June 2 at Theatre Above the Law, 1439 W. Jarvis, Chicago.

Tickets can be purchased at www.theatreatl.org.

Additional information about this and other area productions can be found at www.theatreinchicago.com.