THEATER THAT BINDS
Raven Theatre’s production of Martyna Majok’s Ironbound directed by Georgette Verdin is a brilliantly patient drama supported by a stellar cast and a detail-oriented creative team.
Lucy Carapetyan
Darja, a Polish immigrant, has few constants in her life, but a bus stop in a run-down New Jersey town is one of them. Ironbound checks in on Darja over the course of 20 years and three relationships as she negotiates for her future at this bus stop with men who can offer her love or security, but never both. Life deals her a bad hand at every turn but driven by love for her son she never gives up.
Lucy Carapetyan, Nate Santana
Playwright Martyna Majok, winner of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Cost of Living, is an expert at her craft and it shows in Ironbound. Majok takes her time with each scene. She never rushes through the plot, allowing characters to gain only inches at a time. She peals back layers slowly and without a showy flair, constantly surprising her audience with subtle twists, turns, and words left unspoken. With writing as quietly complicated as Majok’s, a strong cast and creative team is imperative to pull it off. Thankfully, Raven Theatre’s production has both.
Lucy Carapetyan, Richie Villafuerte
Scenic designer Lindsay Mummert took the play’s single setting and ran with it. Her New Jersey bus stop looks dingy and dirty. It’s challenging to make something look authentically worn in, and she pulls it off with the craftsmanship of Northlight Scene Shop who constructed the set. The sidewalk looks like real concrete, and little pieces of trash litter the gutter. No detail in this design is too small for Mummert’s attention. Her hyper-realistic set helps draw the audience in to eavesdrop on these intimate bus stop conversations between Darja, played by Lucy Carapetyan, and the men who pass through her life.
Nate Santana, Lucy Carapetyan
Carapetyan is a wonderfully messy Darja. She leans into Majok’s dark comedy, punching up some laugh lines with her strong Polish accent (dialect coaching by Elise Kauzlaric), and pivots with sincerity into the rawer human moments. Nate Santana plays Darja’s first husband, Maks, with arresting charm. He also has a strong handle on Majok’s subtext, saying whole sentences with just an expression. Carapetyan and Santana are so connected onstage that it’s a joy to watch them work off each other.
Lucy Carapetyan, Nate Santana
Richie Villafuete finds a delicate balance with his portrayal of Tommy, Darja’s current partner, who does and says deplorable things but somehow remains unthreatening and, dare I say, a little likeable. Watching Villafuete and Carapetyan in their scenes is like watching a complex game of chess where you can’t tell if one player is winning or if a trap is being set. Glenn Obrero plays a vivacious Vic, a stranger who stumbles upon Darja in a moment of need, providing a jolt of electricity in this otherwise quiet play. In the wrong hands, Vic might come off as a caricature, but Obrero puts honesty into his naïve enthusiasm and barely hidden desperation.
Lucy Carapetyan, Richie Villafuerte
With so much subtext and slow-moving action, dead air between scenes would be a death sentence for this play. Director Georgette Verdin makes sure there is none. Scene transitions happen in a flash, sometimes literally, with the help of Eric Watkins’ striking lighting design, and Darja never leaves the stage. Instead, Verdin helps indicate passage of time by having Darja swiftly and naturally add or remove a single item of clothing (costumes by Steph Taylor) or switch cell phones from an older to a newer model in her pocket (props by Lonnae Hickman). Again, no detail was overlooked. Every cog in this machine is doing its part.
Glenn Obrero, Lucy Carapetyan
Some of my favorite plays to watch are those that follow an ordinary person through a quiet life, but only with a master wordsmith like Majok behind the script. Ironbound cuts out a slice of the human condition and serves it up on a plate. It’s not decadent. Instead, it’s got a little bit of everything: the sweet, the salty, the sour, and the spicy. This is the real stuff. Consume it!
Lucy Carapetyan, Nate Santana
photos by Michael Brosilow
Lucy Carapetyan
Ironbound
Raven Theatre, 6157 N. Clark St. (at Granville)
Thurs-Sat at 7:30; Sun at 3
ends on October 27, 2024 EXTENDED to November 2, 2024
for tickets ($30-$45), call 773.338.2177 or visit Raven Theatre
for more shows, visit Theatre in Chicago