“Strange Heart Beating” with Cloudgate Theatre

Cloudgate Theatre’s sophomore production is the World Premier of “Strange Heart Beating.” This dark, twisting tale is written by Kristin Idaszak, Artistic Director of said company, and is directed by Addie Gorlin. The production takes us into the fantastical realm of rural Midwest America, a place that is supposed to call to mind homegrown charm and eternal good manners. However, by following our heroes’ journeys, we unearth the prejudices and injustices that taint the white picket fences that line our nation. The play seeks to unravel, but instead the fabric of the play frays before our eyes. 

We are thrown into the action of the play right after the lights come up. Lena’s daughter, Helen, has gone missing, and Lena’s childhood friend, and now town sheriff, Teeny is on the case. Even before the first scene ends, it is determined that Helen has been killed and possibly sexually assaulted. I spoil this for you because a) it happens within the first twenty minutes of the play and b) it is never solved. We never figure out who killed this young child, and this is just the first of many scenarios that we don’t get enough information about. How old was Helen? We know that she was young, but Leah Raidt, playing Lena, doesn’t look old enough to have a child older than five years old. Raidt has been miscast as a mother who has a history of unhealthy dependency on drugs, alcohol, and bad boyfriends. Her face naturally looks pleasant with bright blue eyes, luminous skin, and a mouth that looks like it’s slightly smiling when resting.

Jyreika Guest is cast well as a young sheriff in a small town that is disposed to be prejudiced against her because of her race. She handles her shifts in power dynamics well, and she has razor sharp humor and darting eyes to aid her. If only there were more of her and her backstory. The little snippets that we get about her, that her own sister disappeared and that she went to the “big city” after growing up, left me nearly raising my hand as if in class to say “Hey! Wait, can we go back? I didn’t quite catch that. Please elaborate.” 

After a scapegoat, played by Brandon Rodriguez, is arrested and put through a trial, suddenly the town is out of the drugs necessary to execute him by lethal injection.  Instead of waiting or putting him on death row, they somehow get permission to hang him. As of right now, the only state that allows hanging as a secondary method of execution is New Hampshire. But we are told that this play takes place in contemporary times and in the rural Midwest, nowhere near the East Coast or back when hanging was a legal method (the 1960s). If this were a surrealist play, I’d have no qualms with it, and in some instances it does feel this way with lyrical and elegant movement created by Jyreika Guest to fascilitate some poetic moments and scene changes, and passing of hair bows (symbolizing the murder of young girls) on stage.  But this approach isn’t consistent throughout the play. We start the evening with a police procedural and then move through different mixtures of surrealism, mystery, and sci-fi. There is nothing wrong with mixing genres, but you actually have to mix them in the bowl together to combine the flavors. What we have is a couple different ingredients in a bowl that haven’t been whisked yet. 

The majority of the play’s poetic language and exposition is handled with command by Stephanie Shum as “The Lake.” Yes, she plays the lake where Helen’s body is found, and possibly hides the bodies of other young girls (again, we never get this mystery solved). Even though Shum plays a metaphor, she engages the audience with such confidence that we hang off of her every word. As a lake, she speaks with more subtext than any of the other characters on stage and has the strongest points of view on the action of the play. She prowls the stage, wearing a beautiful, symbolic costume, created by Anne Wooden, consisting of nets draped about her diminutive frame with a bustle from which litter hangs. Her face is washed with blue and green paint on her cheekbones and eyes, and her hair is twisted in knots and braids. But through this elaborate ensemble, it’s her piercing eyes and husky voice that hypnotizes the audience. The beauty of Wooden’s costume in addition to Shum’s performance is that Shum wears the costume, it never wears her. She hosts the evening and dons the metaphor and outfit of a lake with such tenacity and assuredness that we would believe her if she claimed to be a highway or a car or a landline telephone.

Addie Gorlan nimbly maneuvers the actors upon a spectacular stage, and does her best to weave the loose threads of this show together. The first performances that we are treated to are actually Kaili Story’s (Lighting Design) and Averi Paulsen’s (Sound Design) lightning strikes and roars of thunder. With these, we are whisked away into the sweltering summer of a small town. These two experts continue to work hand in hand for the rest of the evening, setting an eerie tone with drastic light shifts and startling telephone rings with perfect timing. The more realistic scenes take place in the police office, created by Angela McIlvain. A wooden floor with a run down AC window unit, a fan, and furniture that reeks of the midwest is raised above the floor of the theatre. Underneath the raised stage, lights seep out to create the lake and other places of intrigue and mystery. 

Idaszk’s script oscillates from lines that could use more specifics to poetry. Poignant lines such as “there is violence in forgetting” are unforgettable, but they would ring with even more truth if it didn’t feel like all of the previous lines had been glossed with impatience to write the pivotal moments. Some plot twists appear to serve merely as a way to lead to a line that sounds thrilling taken out of context, but is unjustified in the domino line leading up to it.  Characters change their minds seemingly on a whim, and not enough of their backstories are created, either by actor or playwright, to justify their actions. The themes presented on stage and the diamond-in-the-rough lines prove that Idaszk has a sensitivity to societal concerns and a way with words, but all of these components must be sewn together so that they may satisfyingly unravel. 

If you’re going to see this play, see it for the poise and steely strength of Shum and the spectacular production design. Perhaps see the play when it has been edited so as to fully mix all of the genre ingredients together and to create a beautiful pie. But as of right now, it’s as if I walked into a shop to buy a shirt and walked out with all of the pieces of fabric cut to match a pattern, with my task being to sew all of the pieces (errant plot lines and character turns) together. 

This production runs from July 9th to July 28th at The Frontier (1106 W. Thorndale) in Chicago, IL. Curtain times start at 7:30 pm for Thursday – Saturday, and 5 pm on Sundays.  There are industry nights on Monday the 15th and 22th that start at 7:30 pm. You can pay what you want in advance, starting at $5, and their Open Door policy allows for free tickets at the door based on attendance. All tickets may be found at their website, Cloudgatetheatre.com. The show lasts for 85 minutes without an intermission. 

For more information, visit theatreinchicago.com.

Somewhat Recommended 

Sophie Vitello