The title of Mark Roberts' lacerating drama refers to resistance factors limiting an airplane's ability to gain altitude. Roberts' characters are driven by passion in their desperate quests for happiness and inner peace, while a complex web of emotional baggage prevents their efforts from taking flight. The heart-wrenching work—in its West Coast premiere, under the expert direction of David Fofi—offers profound ruminations on family dysfunction in contemporary Middle America.
In small-town Illinois, Gene (Robert Foster) and Joellen (Mim Drew) have endured a staid, hostile, and sometimes violent 20-year marriage. The ever-uptight and hypocritical Gene is a Bible-thumping religious zealot, while the once-spirited Joellen attempts to drown her sorrow and boredom in marijuana. As Gene's drug-addicted, AIDS-suffering adult sister lies in a hospital, near death, his long-estranged elder brother Ronnie (Boyd Kestner) arrives with his unsophisticated but kindly Southern wife (Agatha Nowicki). Gene and the ornery Ronnie instantly clash, dredging up a hornet's nest of skeletons in the family closet, leading to an explosive climax.
Fofi guides a triumphant ensemble, creating an illuminating array of life-size characters. Foster and Kestner give riveting, multilayered portrayals; their interactions are frightening and fascinating, and the actors skillfully sidestep contemptibility in playing unpleasant characters whose redemptive qualities are submerged under strident behavior. Leavening the intense tension is the playwright's mastery of ironic dark humor. Nowicki is a revelation, imbuing her ostensibly naive country bumpkin—to whom Kentucky Fried Chicken is a gourmet meal—with innate wisdom, compassion, and a purity of spirit that has eluded her new relatives. In the subtlest role, Drew likewise elicits sparks of sanity and hope, helping to anchor the play's tumultuous events with her moving depiction of Joellen's survival instincts amid the bleakest of circumstances.
Some viewers may carp that Roberts lays on the Book of Job parade of tragic family revelations a bit too fervently at the hell-and-brimstone conclusion. Yet that's a minor quibble in light of the genuine chills, laughs, and food for thought generated by this harrowing work. Add the impeccable artistry of Fofi, his deeply committed cast, and an inspired design team (set by Danny Cistone, lighting by Joel Daavid, costumes by Louis Douglas Jacobs, original music and sound by Peter Bayne), and the result is a haunting evening of theater not soon to be forgotten.
Presented by Elephant Theatre Company at the Elephant Space, 6322 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. Aug. 13–Sept. 18. Thu.–Sat., 8 p.m. (213) 614-0556. www.elephanttheatrecompany.com.