LITTLE BEAR RIDGE ROAD IS A
BRIGHT STAR IN OUR VAST UNIVERSE
Steppenwolf’s world premiere production of Little Bear Ridge Road by Samuel D. Hunter lays bare the reality of two people who feel so much yet are stubbornly unwilling or unable to tear down their walls and allow connection.
Laurie Metcalf and Micah Stock
This play, commissioned by Steppenwolf specifically for the powerhouse duo of legendary stage talent and Steppenwolf co-founder Laurie Metcalf and preeminent director Joe Mantello, is one of the best written I have seen in Chicago since before March 2020. Hunter (A Case for the Existence of God, A Bright New Boise) stays true to his style with a deeply human play about people on the margins of society. Artist directors Audrey Francis and Glenn Davis put the central question of the play into words perfectly in their welcome note: “Is investing in other people, or relying on them, worth it when we’re all just temporary specks of dust in the vast scale of the universe?”
John Drea and Micah Stock
Sarah, played by the incomparable Metcalf, is a woman seemingly content to be closed off from the world around her. She needs no one and she prefers if no one needs her, or that’s what she’d like you to think. Her depressed nephew, Ethan, played by Micah Stock, carries a world of hurt under a heavily reinforced shield. He desperately wants love and protection but refuses to allow the kind of vulnerability that might open him up to such a connection.
Laurie Metcalf and Micah Stock
The title Little Bear Ridge Road might just be a part of their mailing address in the middle of Idaho (nearly all of his work is set in that state), but I think it has something to say about the characters. These people are fierce — their claws may come out if they feel threatened. But they are also so small — pin pricks in our vast universe. And throughout the play, they are moving along the edge of something, in danger of falling at any time.
Laurie Metcalf, John Drea and Micah Stock
With a star like Metcalf who has perfected the craft, I was prepared to see a standout performance with her co-star tagging along for the ride. Metcalf was indeed spectacular, giving a breathtakingly specific performance that made me lean in, but Stock was spectacular in his own right, making boldly hilarious and heartbreaking choices with Ethan that gave us some of my favorite moments of the play.
Laurie Metcalf and Micah Stock
Also strong in the cast are John Drea as James, Ethan’s perhaps unlikely love interest, and Meighan Gerachis as nurses Paulette and Vickie (both actors dexterously handle other characters as well).
Micah Stock and John Drea
I was struck also by the specificity of the scenic design by Scott Pask, who seems to pull from themes within the play to create a set heavily emphasizing circles (or, as I saw them, black holes), and the idea of turning on an axis. A large white circle of carpet provided a striking contrast to the black of the stage and the dark stone spanning floor to ceiling against the back wall. A ceiling fan rotated above a beige couch which also rotated on an axis to show passage of time or change in location throughout. The bare-bones set narrowed the focus on the actors and allowed space for the direction to shine.
John Drea and Micah Stock 
Mantello’s staging created distance between these characters and allowed them space to reach out with all their might, without ever quite making contact. Set between 2020 and 2022, the physical distance between characters was made even greater by a need to stay apart for their own safety, both physical and emotional. This made the few moments of physical touch so much more powerful. One moment of just reaching out and holding a hand brought me to tears.
Laurie Metcalf and Micah Stock
I cannot recommend this play enough. It might hurt your heart to watch these emotionally congested characters try and fail and succeed and fail at connection, but you’ll be gifted with laughs along the way, and a sense that you’ve witnessed something special in our terrifyingly vast universe.
photos by Michael Brosilow
Little Bear Ridge Road
Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Downstairs Theater, 1650 N. Halsted St.
ends on July 21, 2024 EXTENDED to August 4, 2024
Tues-Fri at 7:30; Sat at 3 & 7:30; Sun at 3
dark July 4, 10 (evening only) & 16
for tickets (beginning at $20) call 312.335.1650 or visit Steppenwolf
for more shows, visit Theatre in Chicago