The most prismatic and accessible part of an otherwise esoteric canon, Wallace Shawn’s “Aunt Dan and Lemon” was one of the best contemporary plays of the 1980s (it was initially presented in Chicago by the Steppenwolf Theatre Company). And while the simply staged revival at Scott Letscher’s Terrapin Theatre has a low budget, this is nonetheless an intelligent and compelling production of a work with so many thematic complexities that it rewards multiple viewings.
Whereas most plays focus primarily on either the personal or the political, “Aunt Dan” combines intellectual and social interest with a empathetic central character. It also plays deliciously with the audience’s collective head–Shawn forces you to like certain people, only to ultimately reveal their moral bankruptcy.
But unlike this writer’s bedeviling later works, “Aunt Dan” is a clear and unified piece of drama and not just mind fodder. The characters seem real, their dilemmas appear relevant to real life and the audience leaves the theater feeling that weighty ethical issues have been discussed.
The action revolves around Lemon (played by Susie Griffith, who improves steadily as the production progresses) in this memory-driven play. Between drinking juice and sharing her views on the sympathetic side of the Nazis, this sickly young woman introduces us to scenes from her childhood, spent in England. We meet her businessman father (Brad Nelson Winters) and her educated but ineffectual mother (Jenny McNight). But the formative figure in the making of Lemon is an Oxford academic known as Aunt Dan (Franette Liebow, who captures all of this character’s complexities).
Through Dan, Lemon and her insecure parents are seduced by a fast-living crowd of pompous intellectuals and a high-class hooker named Mindy (Pam Dickler). And through listening to Dan’s pseudo-fascist ideas and amoral philosophies, Lemon becomes a troubled adult.
Shawn’s point is that absolute evil is insidious, quietly hanging out at universities and even forming inside a child through the guise of a friendly mentor.
Letscher stages the many scenes here with impressively fluidity, and his actors are uniformly strong. It’s cheering to see a small, young theater company master such a challenging piece of theater.
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“Aunt Dan and Lemon”
Where: TinFish Theatre, 4223 N. Lincoln Ave.
When: Through May 2.
Call: (773) 989-1066.
