Review- Rabbit Hole

David Lindsay-Abaire used to be known as a court jester of the absurd. Fuddy Meers, the play that launched his career in 1999, was a funhouse predicated on a physiological anomaly: a woman wakes every morning not remembering anything about the previous day, or her previous life, for that matter. She falls in with various ne’er-do-wells, and comedy happens. Ditto with Kimberly Akimbo, in which the main character is a girl of 16 trapped in a 70-year-old body. In both, what seems like fantasy is actually based in a real physiological anomaly. We are all just genetic slip away from a strange, strange land. One false step, and we’re tumbling down the rabbit hole into a land of wonders.
    Or emptiness. Lindsay-Abaire’s Rabbit Hole, which won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize, might seem like it is worlds away from Lindsay-Abaire’s previous comedies. During intermission at the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre’s production, in fact, I heard people scoff at the idea that this was a comedy at all. A couple struggles after the death of their 4-year-old child: Send in the clowns!
    It’s foolish to quibble over labels, but this is comedy in the classic sense—a keen set of observations of human behavior. Grief isn’t rendered in declamations or beating of breasts (as it was in Renaissance Theatreworks recent production of The Persians). It bubbles to the surface in conversations about birthday presents, pets, and—in a stunningly simple and powerful climax—a story about a high school senior prom.
    So Rabbit Hole isn’t far from the funhouse after all. The normal and everyday is whisked away in a flash, the floor opens up and we’re in the dark, hurtling into the unknown. Sure, Lindsay-Abaire’s characters are in a comfortable suburban house with family and friends gathered round, but they’re still falling, grasping at whatever they can to steady themselves and find their bearings.
    C. Michael Wright’s production is beautifully wrought, full of quiet moments of pathos and, yes, wonderful touches of comedy. It may seem simple to just let Lindsay-Abaire’s intelligent writing speak for itself, but the cast’s sense of timing, understatement and emotional truth is tremendously skillful. While more and more entertainment these days has come to resemble a carnival ride, this quiet, graceful play is an adventure in the best sense—it will help you see the world anew.