Reviews

Brilliant Adventures

Steep Theatre brings the U.S. premiere of Alistair McDowell’s genre-bending saga to Chicago.

Peter Moore (Ben) and Brandon Rivera (Greg) in Alistair McDowall's Brilliant Adventures, directed by Robin Witt, at Chicago's Steep Theatre.
Peter Moore (Ben) and Brandon Rivera (Greg) in Alistair McDowall's Brilliant Adventures, directed by Robin Witt, at Chicago's Steep Theatre.
(© Brandon Wardell)

Since 2001, off-Loopland's Steep Theatre has earned a reputation for grit, passion, and the sort of muscular, no-punches-pulled ensemble work that is a hallmark of the Chicago storefront scene. That low-budget/high-intensity aesthetic continues with the U.S. premiere of playwright Alistair McDowall's Brilliant Adventures, a sometimes stomach-churning blend of hyper-violent, kitchen-sink realism and time-trippy sci-fi.

Most often when there's a time-machine onstage, the show is anchored in the fantastical worlds of steampunk or futuristic fantasy. Brilliant Adventures lives in neither. Directed by Robin Witt, McDowell's tale of time-traveling, drug-dealing, and the neo-Dickensian plight of the 21st century poor is more Quentin Tarantino than Star Trek. That time machine isn't a sleek construction of gleaming chrome and flashing lights. It's a battered cardboard box held together with duct tape.

And while time travel plays a crucial role in Brilliant Adventures, 19-year-old genius Luke (Curtis Edward Jackson) is more concerned with paying the rent on his grimy flat than he is with zipping off to another dimension. Ditto Luke's alternately abusive and protective older brother Rob (Ryan McBride), a bottom-rung drug dealer who keeps a junkie (Will Kinnear) on a leash nearly everywhere he goes, shooting him up occasionally with a maintenance dose.

McDowell's plot takes off as Rob — stoked in belief he's finally found a way to pull himself and Luke out of poverty — goes to work for Ben (Peter Moore) a charismatic and wealthy drug lord from London. Luke's needy, nerdy mate Greg (Brandon Rivera) also joins Ben's employ, overjoyed at being allowed to sweep up after such a (seemingly) sophisticated success.

Predictably, Ben isn't the savior Robert and Greg believe. It doesn't take long before their quest for a leg up in a crummy world turns into a dead end of gruesome Marathon Man-style torture. Blood is shed (this is not a show for the squeamish) over control of the time machine. Ben looks at the contraption and sees dollar signs. Luke looks at it and knows it's way too dangerous to unleash on the planet.

Director Witt draws fittingly rough-and-tumble performances from the cast, especially Jackson as the stuttering, sensitive Luke and Ty Olwin as Luke 2, returned from two days in the future in an attempt to prevent the horrifying fate that's about to befall present Luke. As the leashed junkie (who turns out to have a deep, defining relationship with Luke and Rob), Kinnear is heartbreaking, especially in a second-act monologue that lets the audience in on the secrets of his past.

For for all the strength in Witt's ensemble and McDowell's clever genre-bending, Brilliant Adventures is a distance from brilliant. For one thing, it's dominated by testosterone and violence. Both of those elements are entertaining enough, but on their own, and at such extreme levels, they don't allow for much depth. You don't need a time machine to see what's coming next as the plot unfurls. It's obvious from his entrance that Ben's the Big Bad here, and it's a bit of a trudge waiting for Luke, Robert, and Greg to figure that out for themselves. And given the centrality of the time machine, Ben's fate — and the plot's resolution — is fairly obvious as early as the halfway mark in the two-hour production.

The target audience for Brilliant Adventures is small, and even then sympathies will be stretched thin when audiences see these angry young men with relentless machismo propelling this show. With the exception of the enigmatic junkie, everyone in scenic designer Dan Stratton's believably grimy apartment believes they've been treated unfairly by the wider world and that they deserve better. Coming from four white guys living in a first-world country, that's a tough argument to empathize much with.

Ultimately, McDowell leaves the audience wishing there were more depth and contrast in the story. Though his premise is marvelous, the execution of it, not so much.

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Brilliant Adventures

Closed: August 29, 2015