Both Melissa James Gibson’s play THIS and Windy City Playhouse’s production exist on a precipice. For the characters in Gibson’s script, they stand on the ledge approaching forty and the onset of middle age, while also waxing nostalgic about the good old college days.These college friends—Jane, Marrell, and Alan (plus Marrell’s spouse, Tom, and Jean-Pierre, a new, misplaced member of the circle)—stand firmly in that liminal space. The characters must navigate both the loss of a loved one (Jane is recently widowed) and the creation of new life (Marrell and Tom are parents to a newborn son). And while Gibson’s characters seem to be contemplating major life experiences, she also paints them as exceedingly privileged and self-absorbed—in such a way that it becomes rather difficult to sympathize with them. Similarly, Windy City Playhouse’s production (with direction by Artistic Associate Carl Menninger) occupies an in-between status—partly entertaining (with an occasional laugh-out-loud funny line delivery), partly striving towards deep emotional complexity. Unfortunately, THIS never swings far enough in either direction to be memorable.
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Rachel Weinberg Reviews 