Rabbit Hole: When art helps us know who we are

What does art do?

Some think of it solely as decoration, something to beautify our surroundings.

But for others, art reaches inside us to elevate feelings we don't always allow to be shown in public.

"Rabbit Hole" by David Lindsay-Abaire is a Pulitzer Prize winning work of art that fits into that latter category. And this small Off-Barrow production, opening Friday in the Barrow-Civic Little Theatre, delivers this rollercoaster of simultaneous emotions straight into that lump in your throat that you will fight to swallow until after the final bow.
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This show explores the human condition. It examines how we all carry grief in different ways.

This show will make you chuckle as you wipe tears from your eyes and then make you cry again as you relate to what the character is experiencing. And it will make you think.

One of the longer monologues delivered by Cindy Heffern playing the part of Nat, the mom/grandmother figure of the five person play, reminds us that the weight of grief we carry is ok because it is all we have left of our lost love ones. She reminds us that it is not a solution to recovery but it allows us to still hold on to that deep love.

The main story-line of grief recovery comes from a couple, Becca and Howie Corbett played by Elizabeth Williams and Evan O' Polka, whose son was killed chasing after the family dog into a street where he was hit by a car driven by Jason, played by Nate Boley.

The couple is drifting apart, each dealing with the loss differently and not finding common ground to heal upon despite it being months.

In the process, the extended family is growing. Becca's sister Izzy, played by Kachina Earhart, announces she is pregnant which brings up a whole series of very complex emotions.

It's not fair to say that Heffern steals the show, because each performance is complex. But she gets to make the audience laugh with her off-the-cuff comments and stories that weave into the fabric of the show's meaning when she talks about the "cursed" Kennedy family. They parallel to her own family with generational losses as her own son died 11 years earlier from a drug overdose.

And though her grief for the loss of her son is real and painful, it is pointed out that it is not, nor should be compared to her daughter's grief or loss of her own son. Grief is different and individual.

Just as joy is. And this theme is observed in many complicated ways throughout the story's vignettes.

The play also explores the weight of being a young driver of the car that hit a child who ran out into the road and and how the teen struggles to move on from that.

​And then there is a the complex emotions of blaming or not blaming someone for something that wasn't their fault or being jealous of a sibling who is building a separate happiness while the cloud suffering still hovers over the family.

What a complex play this is and this cast is delivering the emotions in a real way and showing the complexity of the human condition in the fragility of happiness. 

This is not for the meek, but it is a show for understanding each other a little better. (Scroll down below for a full review of the show.)

There will be five performances - 7:30 p.m. on August 8, 15 and 16; and 2 p.m. on August 10 and 17. (Note: there is no show on August 9.)

​Tickets are $20 and can be purchased online at barrowtheatre.org or by calling the box office at 814-437-3440.

Audience should take note that the show features some adult language.

Art can only delivered when the artists' are real

To deliver  laughter, anger, empathy, being lost, and suffering deep in sorrow  and to pull these emotion from the audience all in the span of around two hours is a truly remarkable thing.

​And good actors don't just memorize lines, they deliver them with their whole body.

Elizabeth Williams use of hand gestures  from  wringing, hands, clenching fists and putting down and picking up the same items over and over again help us along for the ride of her emotional toll.

The work her hands do holding a tissue as her facial expression looks out past the audience sitting in seconds from loss to hopeful wonderment of an alternative version of herself that is happy.

Her counterpart Evan O'Polka also has to navigate through the portrayal of moving on. His lost stoic stares, frustrated drooped shoulders, and restraint in tough scene after tough scene that many wouldn't blame his character from exploding with raw unfiltered emotion.

One scene after learning one of his prized processions that he watched to remember his son had been accidentally destroyed he had to move from his aggressive pain to acceptance that it too, like his sons death, was an accident and, though easy to place fault on another, in the end it does not serve his pain to carry it further, 

Williams' and O 'Polka's dynamic isn't a black and white portrayal of characters. It is a woven tapestry of emotional sparring that isn't easy to pull off.

​And yet they have found these characters and allow themselves to drain every ounce of blood from their veins and leave it on the stage.

And if you don't believe that, watch them when they take their bows. All characters are emotional drained.

​Nate Boley, in some ways has the hardest character to pull off. As a young actor with not many performances under his belt, Boley has to deliver awkward emotional lines with a lack of confidence like a teenager would but with the importance of learning the life lesson of connection and becoming an adult despite the difficulty of the situation.

Kachina Earhart's character has to walk on eggshells, something the "bold one" of the family isn't used to doing. She stumbles through trying to be helpful and yet giving hope and advice that isn't always listened to seriously but is ultimately taken for the most part. But she also lost a nephew she adored.

Her trying to be the lighter side of the situations adds to the complexity of the family dynamic - helping to soothe in some cases and escalate in others. Not an easy character to play at all.

Heffern is a mom many can relate to. She sticks her nose in to help when it's not the best time, to gets frustrated when her help doesn't work and isn't appreciated, and then finally, delivers exactly what moms do - insight that comes from wisdom.

It’s truly a remarkable play, and the small cast in this Off-Barrow performance worked very hard to tap deep into their own guts for honest and powerful expression-filled performances.

​Bring tissues and don't be afraid to cry... and laugh.