Mr. Wolf sneaks up on you.
Steppenwolf opened its 50th season Sunday with the Chicago premiere of ensemble member Rajiv Joseph’s deceptively powerful play about the devastating impact a child’s kidnapping has on both her and her family.
This is a story briskly told in a single 85-minute act. As a result, the production’s punch relies on director K. Todd Freeman’s precise pacing and the seemingly small but hugely significant dramatic choices made by actors Kate Arrington, Tim Hopper, Caroline Neff and Namir Smallwood–all of whom are also members of Steppenwolf’s ensemble.
They team up here with Emilie Maureen Hanson, who more than holds her own as Theresa, the teen who has been rescued many years after most everyone had given her up for dead, to deliver a story that is as profound in the questions it asks as it is chilling in its particular details.
The revelations come in abrupt, seemingly matter-of-fact ways that catch us by surprise and take our breath away. Did we just hear that? we think as events continue to unspool absent any showy focus on the critical moments that click into place like dials on a combination lock that springs open when all the numbers finally line up.
Tim Hopper plays the titular role of delusional kidnapper as well as several other people Theresa meets after she is saved from years of confinement. Do we feel a sliver of compassion for Mr. Wolf given his seemingly pure-hearted affection for and benign treatment of Theresa? Hopper is great at generating sympathy for characters who may not deserve much of it. If any.
Kate Arrington is Hana, Theresa’s mom, who divorced Michael to save her sanity with a fresh start while he, in a nearly mute but deeply affecting performance by Namir Smallwood, remained the hopeful father, certain that his daughter was still alive. As Michael’s second wife, Julie, Caroline Neff has perhaps the clearest, certainly the rawest, understanding of how all this grief is grinding everyone down.
That’s the setup. The rest, you need to see for yourself.
I will add one thought about the stars of this production. Hopper, Arrington and Smallwood are all excellent and they command our rapt attention. But they are not the types to disappear into their roles, to take the brilliant chameleon’s route into a story. Neff, in contrast, is more and more astonishing as the years go by and we see her fully, fearlessly, intelligently inhabit so many distinctly different personas.
It feels like a magic trick, but it represents incredible craft.
Mr. Wolf runs through November 2 at Steppenwolf Theatre.
For a full roundup of reviews of this show, visit Theatre in Chicago.
Photo by Michael Brosilow
