Thrown out of her apartment, a retarded young woman stands centerstage talking of her sexual adventures. From the very opening, The Crackwalker grabs our attention and holds onto it. Canadian playwright Judith Thompson's often-performed play about the lives of four marginalized people is well interpreted by director/producer Caerthan Banks. Yet, Thompson's material is so strong and visceral that it is hard to imagine going wrong with it. The two couples—one plagued by domestic violence and the other by mental illness—haunt us by being familiar but shocking in that they are not often represented in theatre.
Liz Jemielita does an admirable job of tackling mentally slow Therese, who seems more concerned with chocolate donuts than her newborn baby. Al (Scott Cain), Therese's husband, is the most precarious character, with the longest downward trajectory. Cain initially plays Al as a harmless sidekick to his buddy Joe, but throughout the play, his performance and his character's lot get more intense. If the title refers to those who walk on the cracks of society, Al is the one who has teetered on the edge and fallen through.
Sandy is the backbone of the play, and Lisa Glass plays her as tough and vulnerable, a walking contradiction that we can't help but relate to. Sandy's husband, Joe (Michael Erger), booms onto the stage with pathetic manly bravado. He evokes the most disgust and the least empathy. Yet, Thompson gives even this character nuance, and Erger successfully runs with it. By the end, when Joe returns from an absence to woo his wife anew, we find ourselves wanting to believe that he has changed, wanting Sandy to give him a chance. The final character, a hobo bum the playbill refers to as the Man (Scot Renfro), punctuates the play with a vision of what each of the characters could become. He only mumbles, spits, and laughs to himself, and he seems to be a poetic commentary on the story.
The set (Kenny Klimak) and lighting design (John Prince) effectively evoke several locations, with our minds easily filling in the blanks. The original art created expressly for the production, used for the playbill and painted on the side of the theatre, is a nice touch. Neither the playwright nor the actors allows the downtrodden characters to become caricatures. Each character is real, human, and complex. And as audience members, we feel their lives and their living rooms have been split open to accommodate our seats. We're in awe, embarrassed, haunted.
"The Crackwalker," presented by the Company of Angels at Angels Theatre, 2106 Hyperion Ave., Silverlake. Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m. Mar. 31-May 13. $15. (323) 883-1717.