Steppenwolf's The Birthday Party Leaves Us in the Dark
By Melody Udell in Arts & Entertainment on Feb 8, 2013 4:00PM
Fun and games turn malicious during the Steppenwolf's production of The Birthday Party.
If your last birthday party wasn’t thrown by a daffy boarding-house matron or attended by two mysterious thugs, well, consider yourself lucky. Stanley (Ian Barford), the tragic main character in Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party, didn’t fare so well. And neither do his guests. But Pinter, whose insinuatingly dark comedy first debuted in 1957 to a less-than-warm critical reception, isn’t about to let something as seemingly innocuous as a birthday party go unexplored.
The Steppenwolf’s Upstairs Theatre set-up lets us peer in on the festivities from both sides of the stage. Walt Spangler’s modest set is anchored by a dining room table on a drab, faded rug — and while this is the only room we see in the crumbling seaside boarding house, it’s easy to imagine the wallpaper peeling off the hallway walls or the rusting box spring mattresses jammed into each room. Like the play itself, we must fill in the blanks. We’re left to discern the details both big and small, including why Meg (Moira Harris) — the babbling middle-aged landlady — is troubling herself with the birthday celebration of her only tenant. She’s somehow enamored with the slovenly, 30-something Stanley, who’s been wallowing in loneliness and self-pity for the past year since retreating from a vague amount of fame as a concert pianist.
Director Austin Pendleton is wise enough to allow the talented cast to take the reins, letting them make Pinter’s insidious, often ambiguous language their own — especially in the case of Goldberg (Francis Guinan) and McCann (Marc Grapey). We’re never sure why, exactly, these two show up unexpectedly at the boarding house, but behind Goldberg’s smarm and McCann’s calculated reticence, it’s clear they have malicious intentions. Rounding out the party guests is the pretty neighbor, Lulu (Sophia Sinise), who adds another element to Goldberg’s ill-intentioned itinerary. As we watch the world’s most awkward birthday party unfold — complete with copious alcohol and a rousing game of Blind Man’s Bluff — questions remain unanswered. Does Stanley know these two uninvited guests? Why did they come for him? Is it even Stanley’s birthday?
It seems that Meg’s husband, Petey (John Mahoney), is the only character left unscathed in the aftermath of the party — that sadly knowing look in his eye confirming that this was a birthday better left uncelebrated. In the end, Pinter leaves us in jumble of dubious intentions and shifting identities, feeling like maybe the safety net of ignorance is preferable to the terrifying lucidity that comes with knowing the truth.
The Birthday Party runs at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, 1650 N. Halsted Street, through April 28; tickets: $20-$78 at 312-335-1650 or steppenwolf.org