“Twilight Bowl”

[rating=3]If you are a bowler, and in particular if you are a bowler who has been hanging around the bar on an “off night”, you will feel somewhat at home from the very start of Rebecca Gilman’s “Twilight Bowl”. Walking into the smaller of the theaters at The Goodman, The Owen, where there is no curtain, one is grabbed by the set ( Regina Garcia truly has it just right), and almost feel that you are in a typical small town bowling center where the pins are noisy, the bar is “smelly” and the pizza tastes like cardboard, but yummy with a beer! From the beer signs and the wall hangings, one feels that we are in rural America, and in this case, with the Green Bay Packers logo on the wall leading to the lanes, we know we must be up north in Wisconsin, which is where our story takes place.

“Twilight Bowl” is a sort of coming- of -age story that is 100 % about women. As most of us know, there are probably five male orientated coming-of-age stories for every one that is female orientated. Thanks to Rebecca Gilman, we get a new one that will hit many a lass hard. In particular if they are from a small town, and bowl or worked in a bowling alley. Unlike the centers that are housed in the big city, the bowling alleys of rural America are a meeting place, a place where people bowl and talk for two plus hours and then finish their evening in the bar, drinking and talking about their lives and their futures.

The six women in this story, directed with great skill by Erica Weiss, are all struggling to define who they are and what they want out of life. Brielle ( Mary Taylor) is a true small town girl with little or no hope of a major future. She is shy, and one who follows the rules ( to a Tee).  She will marry a local and has resigned herself to live  her life, probably  in this burgh until she dies. Sharlene ( deftly handled by Anne E. Thompson) is a church-going religious fanatic, who lives by the “Good Book” and is concerned for all of her sinner friends. Clarice ( Hayley Burgess) is a solid character who has a somewhat better future. She is a bowler with some style and class, and Sam (Becca Savoy) is the college bound, athletic type who feels that she can succeed. Jaycee ( Heather Chrisler) is the girl who is faced with the least chance to succeed. Her upbringing has brought her to a strange place and Mandy ( Angela Morris) who is younger than the others and has just experienced a life changing situation.

These women are on the verge of adulthood, in a town where prosperity has already left on the wagon, leaving them with little opportunity to reach the goals they have set for themselves years before. The economic opportunities are pretty close to non-existant, and the fact that no matter how hard they work and how much they desire reaching new heights, the social class of their peers and the economic status of the community will not allow them to reach these. While many feel that luck is an integral part of success in one’s life, most of us realize that who we are and what we grew up with will probably outweight the luck that falls in our laps. Gillman examines this with her special style and these six ladies bring these characters to life. Go to a small town on a Friday night. If they have a ladies league, follow those who go into the bar and observe. What you see ( and possibly overhear) is the “Twilight Bowl”!

“Twilight Bowl” will continue at The Goodman Theatre located at 170 N. Dearborn in Chicago thru March 10th with performances as follows:

Wednesdays  7:30 p.m.

Thursdays  7:30 p.m. and 2 p.m. on March 7th

Fridays  8 p.m.

Saturdays  2 p.m. on March 2nd and 9th and 8 P.M. on all

Sundays  2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. (no evening on 2/24 and 3/10)

Running time 90 minutes NO INTERMISSION

Tickets range from $10-$45 and can be purchased at the box office, by calling 312-443-3800 or online at http://www.GoodmanTheatre.org/TwilightBowl;

Accessibility

Touch Tour and Audio described  3/3 at 2 p.m.

ASL  March 9th at 2 p.m.

Open Captioned  March 10th 2 p.m.

Visit www.GoodmanTheatre.org/access

To see what others are saying, visit www.theatreinchicago.com, go to Review Round-_up and click at “Twilight Bowl”

Public apology

An error was made as I did my review and the first copy, which , after reading through, had some wording that is not what I wanted, so I changed it and asked my editor NOT to release the original. It slipped through the cracks and was put online. If I offended anyone with these words, I am deeply sorry and will make sure that nothing like this ever happens again. I will laos publicly acknowledge same this Sunday on my radio show.