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'Russian Transport' Delivers More Than Chills

By Melody Udell in Arts & Entertainment on Mar 3, 2014 8:10PM

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Russian Transport at the Steppenwolf. Photo by Michael Brosilow.

Russian Transport is just the kind of chilling family drama that makes this winter’s below-zero temps seem even icier. What starts out, seemingly, as a heavily accented comedy of the immigrant-family-American-Dream variety simmers into a taut domestic thriller filled with misplaced trusts and guilty consciences.

As the matriarch of a Russian family now living in Brooklyn, Mariann Mayberry is nearly unrecognizable as Diana, the box-dyed redhead with a penchant for leopard print. But while Ana Kuzmanic’s costume choices might border on the stereotypical (pleather included), Mayberry doesn’t let Diana sink into caricature, even as her character slings Russian insults and broken-English criticisms at just about everyone in her family.

Diana eases up—or attempts to—when her baby brother, Boris, visits from Russia for an extended stay. After arriving at the family’s row house, Boris makes himself at home. Hugs are given, vodka shots are poured, and squabbling ensues—but at this point, you get the feeling this is how the family shows affection.

Tim Hopper perfectly captures Boris’s dark magnetism; it’s easy to see why his niece, Mira (Melanie Neilan) and nephew, Alex (Aaron Himelstein) are drawn toward him. Boris is the intimidating, looming uncle who spouts off sage advice and thug-like threats in the same sentence. Misha (Alan Wilder), Diana’s husband, is the only one who’s suspicious of Boris’s charm, but he’s got his own flailing cab company to keep out of the red before he can focus on the harm his brother-in-law is inflicting on the family.

Both Mira and Alex are thoroughly assimilated teens, each yearning for their own version of freedom. For Mira, that means a study abroad trip to Italy—a trip that Diana vehemently forbids. For Alex, that means getting his mom to stop collecting every dollar he brings in from his part-time job—money that he’d rather spend on designer jackets than his family’s mortgage payments. So when Boris offers Alex a chance to earn a little under-the-table income—without reporting it to his mom—he jumps on the chance. The job, Boris says, is easy: Simply pick up some special deliveries at JFK and transport them to his clients in New Jersey. But during his first pick-up, Alex realizes those special deliveries are actually girls, and his sleazy uncle has embroiled him into a dangerous trafficking ring.

Tension and guilt run high as Alex tries to figure out his next move, but he quickly finds there’s no one he can turn to. The family’s snarky brand of bickering turn into insidious threats as director Yasen Peyankov deftly brings this slow-burning drama into a full boil. Before long, it’s hard for anyone to justify their actions—least of all Boris, who settles into his lucratively corrupt scheme just as comfortably as he presumably did in the old country. Blackmailing his nephew and exploiting his vulnerably naive niece just doesn’t phase him.

Yet despite the high-stakes build-up, the show’s final moments are weaker than expected; playwright Erika Sheffer stops short of delivering any fully realized retribution. Russian Transport is a suspenseful, slow-burning, ambitious family drama, but the show’s tepid conclusion is the one delivery that fails to make its destination.

The show runs through Sunday, May 11 at the Steppenwolf Theater, 1650 N. Halsted, 312-335-1650 or online.