Evanston, Which Is Over There
by Beau O’Reilly
Henry Moore is a depressed, fiftysomething playwright living in Rogers Park. He hasn’t written anything in a while, his love life is a shambles, and his glory days are more than 30 years behind him. Beau O’Reilly’s new play follows Henry for six days as he encounters one zany, over-talkative acquaintance after another. We meet Henry’s tart-tongued ex-wife, a grande dame of the theater; best friend Hank, a ukulele-strumming nervous wreck; Hank’s daughter, who has a Rain Man–esque compulsion to count everything; Henry’s alcoholic son, who fancies himself a street thug; an earth goddess obsessed with rocks; and a young actress who gives Henry palpitations.
“O’Reilly succeeds in creating a multivocal cacophony that sounds like modern-day chatter pushed into overdrive. The Eeyorish hero provides a good counterbalance to the noise and has some insightful observations on aging (he points out that just because you’ve become less desirable doesn’t mean you have less desire)”