I wanted to like The Book of Grace, now upstairs at Steppenwolf, more than I did. It’s a timely drama delving into important themes and it features three talented actors who excel in their roles. Ensemble member Namir Smallwood, who left an indelible impression in Primary Trust at the Goodman last year, is captivating as the estranged, off-kilter son of a Border Patrol agent (Brian Marable, in buttoned-up hardass mode) who comes home to reconnect with dad and stepmother Grace (a luminous Zainab Jah).
It should all add up to pure theatrical satisfaction. But this production of the play, recently updated by Suzan-Lori Parks, didn’t pack quite the punch I’d hoped. Upon reflection, I think it’s because the violence that shatters the uneasy truce among these three unmoored souls sweating out their lives in the Texas heat felt at once inevitable but unearned.
The agent, known as Vet, has dug a hole in the backyard. He won’t explain its purpose, but Smallwood’s Buddy has reason to suspect it’s there to intimidate Grace, to keep her in line with the implicit threat of the grave it so eerily resembles. But when push comes to shove comes to smashing someone’s face with a hot iron normally used to make military-grade creases in Vet’s uniform, it feels like it comes out of nowhere somehow, though of course it doesn’t.
Part of it, I think, is that the tension isn’t ratcheted up enough. There’s too much slack in the line. And Marable, though hugely entertaining in the role, just doesn’t feel all that menacing. Without that rising sense of inevitability and dread, it ends up feeling by-the-numbers when it should be electrifying.
Which is too bad. There’s a good play in there. This production just hasn’t quite found it.
The Book of Grace runs through May 18 at Steppenwolf Theatre.
For a full roundup of reviews of this show, visit Theatre in Chicago.
Photo by Michael Brosilow
