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Jonathan House Emerald
Craig Lucas’ play ‘Reckless’ will be performed at the University’s Arena Theatre this weekend as well as March 14-16.
Escaping the Past
■The University Theatre’s latest
production puts a new spin
on running from the past
‘Reckless’
Arena Theatre
★★★★☆
By Lisa Toth
Oregon Daily Emerald
As the merry tunes of “Frosty the
Snowman” and clips of the
mean, green Grinch and
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Rein
deer subside, the performance of
“Reckless” begins — transporting
viewers to a Christmas Eve in the not
so-distant past. The journey may be
gin on a festive holiday night, but it
shortly descends into a personal hell.
The University Theatre’s second
season presents “Reckless,” written
by Craig Lucas and directed by Rich
Brown, in the Arena Theatre, 104
Villard Hall, at 8 p.m. Friday and
Saturday, as well as March 14
through 16.
Nathan Loveless, played by Tom
Fitsimmons, quickly sets the tone
when he tells his high-spirited wife,
Rachel, “I took a contract out on
your life.”
From this moment on, “Reckless”
keeps the audience waiting to find
out what will happen next. Rachel,
played by Kirsten Schmieding, is
the focus of the story, and the action
follows the characters from town to
town — each comically named
Springfield because there is a town
called Springfield in every state.
And Rachel’s psychosis deepens as
the play advances.
The scenes become even more
random as Bibles are thrown at the
ground, cheesy paintings on bed
room walls continually change and
a tinsel Christmas tree made of cast
members suddenly appears. The
play takes a turn away from the ob
vious and challenges its viewers un
til the very last line.
Schmieding as Rachel is bubbly,
full of energy and continually evok
ing laughs from the audience de
spite the strange and wacky situa
tions in which she finds herself. She
questions how well people really
know other people and their pasts.
She creatively takes the viewer on
a rocky personal journey that blends
her insane dreams with the twisted
realities of her life. People who have
endured rough holiday seasons will
find it easy to relate to Rachel, and
this production offers a bizarre new
spin on running away from the past.
In Rachel’s flee for her life on that
snowy Christmas Eve, she meets
Lloyd Bophtelophti, played by Sam
A. Super. Lloyd has also tried to es
cape his past by changing his name to
evade alimony payments and is cur
rently living with a paraplegic named
Pooty, played by Jana Schmieding.
“The past is something we wake
up to,” Lloyd said in Part 1. “It’s the
nightmare we wake up to every day. ”
In the role of Pooty, Jana
Schmieding effectively plays a seri
ous woman who pretends to be deaf
and disabled, hiding secrets from
Lloyd in the process to protect their
love for each other.
This play strays from the beaten
path not only in Lucas’ fragmented
and disturbing views on American
life, but in the fact that the viewers
expectations constantly change as
the play progresses.
Multiple Christmas Eves, Spring
fields and psychiatrists all factor
into Rachel’s crazy life. In each
Springfield, she sees a new psychia
trist, each played by Minnie Goode.
Goode is fabulous in her versatile
ability to play Rachel’s psychiatrist
over and over again, each time with
a different accent, manner and cos
tume. Her intense anger-release
therapy methods left me grinning
from ear to ear.
This play takes a more serious
tone in Part 2, and Rachel must con
front the question as to whether the
events that have occurred in her life
happened for a reason.
E-mail reporter Lisa Toth
at lisatoth@dailyemerald.com.
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