One Inch From Terrific

Brooklyn Laundry

At the top of this one-act, a perky, attractive young woman named Fran drops off a bag of soiled bedclothes at her local laundromat/dry cleaners. The lady who usually greets her has the day off, but Owen, the owner of a modest three-store laundromat empire, welcomes her instead. Fran paces around, her mind clearly occupied with much more than dry cleaning, and the cheerfully optimistic Owen picks up on this. The amiable laundromat manager is, true to his character, masking his own hurts and heartbreaks. However, Owen choses to look at the positives in life. He observes that Fran reminds him of the fiancee who left him a couple years ago, a woman he describes as being smart, pretty and “one inch from terrific.” Despite gently chiding her for being so gloomy, Owen flirts with Fran and asks her out to dinner.

Fran accepts his invitation, but postpones the date until after she’s returned from an unavoidable trip. The next three scenes find Fran in a dingy mobile home in Pennsylvania, visiting with her terminally ill older sister, Trish. Through a haze of pain pills and foggy family memories, Trish reminisces with Fran about conversations, card games and growing up with a mother who, coincidentally, also died at an early age.

The following scene brings us the play’s best moments. Filled with humor and humanity, it offers a lightness to a story that’s often pretty heavy and filled with sadness. Fran has met Owen at a grill restaurant, but she’s conquered her nerves and eased her gloomy attitude by arriving high on magic mushrooms. She offers some to Owen and soon, over a bottle of wine, the couple’s enjoying each other’s company even more. This quirky date scene is the highlight of this play.

In the following scene we’re back to more gloom and doom. Fran is visiting with Susie, another sister, who also has some tragically sad news of her own. The scene also foreshadows the journey that Fran’s life will eventually take. In the final moments of the play, we’re back in the Brooklyn Laundry where the story of Fran and Owen began. There’s a lot of bitterness, some moments of disappointment, a bit of unshared information that’s finally revealed and, eventually, an honest, happy resolution to the drama that sends the audience home in good spirits.

As in most of John Patrick Shanley’s theatrical works and screenplays, a multitude of questions are posed but answers are seldom ever given. That’s what makes his stories so popular: they provide food for thought but aren’t didactic. The audience is free to make up their own minds. The 73-year-old writer’s films include such movies as “Alive,” “Joe Versus the Volcano” and “Moonstruck.” His plays, performed on stages across the country, include OUTSIDE MULLINGAR (a Northlight favorite from a few years ago), DANNY AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA, SAVAGE IN LIMBO and his Pulitzer Prize-winner,  DOUBT (which is currently enjoying a revival on Broadway).  That’s also the strength of BROOKLYN LAUNDRY, Shanley’s latest play and which is now playing Off-Broadway at New York’s Manhattan Club.

In BJ Jones’ excellent, emotionally-driven production, Northlight Theatre’s Artistic Director showcases both the talents of his fine cast, as well as his own sill in guiding and presenting dramas about the human condition. This is a play about life, with all its messiness and simple pleasures. This jolt of reality laced with romance illustrates that one must cope with and accept what’s delivered to us, while still being able to dream and want.

As always, the cast here is impeccable. Lovely Cassidy Slaughter-Mason, who impressed audiences as Lissette in Raven’s moving production of THE LUCKIEST, brings both comedy and catharsis to the role of Fran. Shanley’s drama revolves around this character and it’s through her that the audience comes to know, not only this conflicted young woman, but the other people in her life. Equally exceptional is Mark L. Montgomery, as Owen. The talented actor, who’s a master of portraying brutally realistic characters, was also seen at Northlight in Shanley’s OUTSIDE MULLINGAR, as well as in Writers Theatre’s outstanding productions of BURIED CHILD and HEDDA GABLER. As Owen, Mr. Montgomery creates a quirky middle-aged fellow who, through his serendipitous meeting with Fran, discovers what he truly wants from life, if given the opportunity to choose.

Marika Mashburn, enjoyed in The House Theater’s superb productions of DEATH & HARRY HOUDINI and the wonderful SEASON ON THE LINE, does an amazing job portraying Trish. Without being maudlin, Ms. Mashburn plays up the humor and positive mindset of a woman who knows she’s nearing the end of her life but has made her peace with it. She can see the humor in what she’s been dealt and remains positive until the end. Sandra Delgado, who plays Susie, is a familiar face at both Teatro Vista and Collaboraction Theaters. She’s also been seen at the Goodman, Steppenwolf and Lookingglass Theatres. In one short scene, Ms. Delgado beautifully creates a woman trying to balance an insurmountable amount of challenges in her life. Unselfishly Susie’s kept her problems and difficulties from her loved ones, but in a poignant scene of revelation, she lets down her guard and shares her personal drama with Fran.

In addition to the emotional roller coaster John Patrick Shanley’s  75-minute one-act offers, and the superb production that BJ Jones has skillfully guided, there’s two more stars in this show. Jeffrey D. Kmiec’s inventive Set Design adds an impressive visual element to this production. He’s lined the entire upstage wall with three soaring tiers of hundreds of hanging garments, each straddling wire coat hangers and covered in those familiar plastic dry cleaner bags. The impression is of an act curtain, metaphorically airing the characters’ dirty laundry. The three scenes taking place in other locales effortlessly move in and out, but the drapery of dry cleaning always remains. And the way the production’s lit by JR Lederle, especially in the charming restaurant scene, seems to transform the wall of suspended garments into a lush, garden-like environment for the diners. This is creativity at its finest.

Life saddles all of us with problems, dilemmas and tragedies. We simply have to cope and make the most of the positive moments. Shanley asks us to focus on and enjoy our irrational wants as we deal with our demanding needs. While the short length of this play makes the journey to a happy ending feel a little forced and rushed, maybe one inch from terrific, there’s a positive element. Any play that can deliver four realistic characters, an honest, unflinching look at life and plenty of unconventional comic moments balanced by poignant scenes of drama, is well worth enjoying.        

Recommended

Reviewed by Colin Douglas

Presented April 11-May 12 by Northlight Theatre, located in the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, 9501 Skokie Blvd., Skokie, IL.

Tickets are available in person at the theatre box office, by calling 847-673-6300, or by going to www.northlight.org.

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