IN PERPETUITY THROUGHOUT THE UNIVERSE
It’s hard to imagine a tame production of this play. But that’s exactly what Element Theatre Company have given it–they’ve sucked out its lifeblood as surely as Miss Petersen, the vampire, has sucked the blood of her victims.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
In Perpetuity Throughout the Universe is a tale of philosophical intrigue. It revolves around Christine Penderecki and her Chinese lover, Dennis Wu, both ghostwriters for a strange, secretive company that sees its lunatic story-telling clients as suckers. The company hires Christine to pose as Lefkowitz, another ghostwriter, who has mysteriously disappeared. As Lefkowitz, she is to help a powerful white supremacist wrestle his anti-Chinese ravings into publishable prose. As she writes, she is drawn into a world of espionage and dangerous half-truths. She learns about her coworkers’ different conspiracy theories, the things they use to explain the world. She struggles with her conflicting feelings–revulsion and fascination–for the book and the man who produced it. And finally, she starts to understand the twisted logic her bigoted client lives by, which forces her to undergo a confrontation with her lover and her own prejudices. That leads eventually to another ghostwriter’s mysterious disappearance.
With two exceptions, the talented cast have not found a way to reconcile the tight control of this staging with their characters’ far freer words and actions. Each comes closest to a solution, however, when he or she is onstage alone. Vito Bitondo’s Lyle Vial (another ghostwriter) is at his quirkiest and most excitable when he sits by himself at his desk reading his newest chain letter. Molly Reynolds as Maria Montage, the boss lady, approaches a great down-and-dirty style when she does a strip for no one. Russell Kuzahara as Wu is charmingly eccentric when he tells the audience a joke in Chinese. But when the actors get together for a scene, their engaging idiosyncrasies vanish–they all become straight men. You can almost see the reins being drawn in.
