PLAYING THE CARDS YOU’RE DEALT:
THE PILON SHUFFLES LOVE, VALUE, AND IDENTITY

Sometimes theater takes you places you never expected — or even wanted — to find yourself. For some, Red Theater’s latest production, The Pilon, might fall somewhere along that spectrum. Set in a contemporary Seattle shop that sells sports cards, nothing about it will feel familiar to anyone who’s never followed a sports team or realized that collecting and trading cards commemorating sports heroes — particularly baseball players — is still a thing. It is. After rebounding from its desperate days in the late ’90s and early 2000s — caused by, among other things, work stoppages and overproduction — the collecting of sports cards has seen a notable resurgence. Today, the pastime and industry are once again poised to return to their glory days as a billion-dollar hobby and business. Part of what The Pilon does is introduce you to the people who populate that world. It also provides a bracingly interesting look at the various shades of love.

Harper Levander

We first find Corbin (Rio Ragazzone) and Marc (Josh Razavi) blazing through their banter about cards on their live stream at work. It’s like listening to a bizarrely complicated and animated foreign language. Full of statistics and names you don’t recognize, the only thing that’s obvious is the zeal fueling their passion. Your mind soon adapts to this new dialect, and you begin to understand the fundamentals of how this universe works. Like so many other businesses, brick-and-mortar card retailers have built an online presence. Shops like the Wax Harvest Card Shop, where Corbin and Marc work, are a rarity, and the two men must do anything and everything to generate interest in their physical store — including live-streaming card pulls.

Soon other characters begin to filter through and fill Manuel Ortiz’s detailed shop set (with props by Chas Mathieu), where you can practically smell the cardboard, hear the pack-rip, and feel the well-worn loyalty of the place. Every poster, pack, and display case sings collection-enthusiasm, making the shop itself a kind of living scrapbook as we learn more about the people who comprise this tableau.

Delia Kropp, Harper Levander, Josh Razavi, Jo Tannous, Rio Ragazzone

Rhonda, Corbin’s aunt, owns the shop, and it doesn’t take long for the character to charm the socks off the audience with her easy, down-to-earth style and Zen-like insights. Delia Kropp plays her beautifully, allowing Rhonda’s presence and significance to deepen throughout this stealthily penetrating story by playwright Zach Barr.

Initially, it’s not clear what Lex’s role is. Does he work at the store, or is he just hanging out there? Free, genuine, expressive, Lex (Jo Tannous) is the kind of guy who marvels simply by being himself — full of naturalness and honesty. Completely his own person, he’s very cool and very gay. One thing he can’t quite hide but won’t dare divulge is that he’s got a secret crush.

Delia Kropp and Harper Levander

Griffey, a 13-year-old trans boy who’s just dipping his toe into the sport of collecting, drops by the shop every so often to try his luck. He’s hoping one of his bag purchases of cheap mystery cards will hold at least one of modest value. A devoted fan of Seattle Emeralds center Ronny Desoto, Harper Levander makes Griffey a bright, self-effacing kid who enjoys the camaraderie he finds in the shop. When he discovers an extremely rare, highly prized, and very valuable card — usually referenced in the play simply as The Pilon — in one of the packs, it’s seismic for everyone. Tension and uncertainty soon trail the initial thrill. What’s a 13-year-old to do with a find worth thousands? His parents don’t even know he collects cards.

Delia Kropp and Rio Ragazzone

Both Corbin and his aunt respect Griffey enough to let him make his own decisions regarding the card. They also agree to keep it for him. Everyone feels it’s safe — and indeed advantageous — to announce the store’s possession of the card to its online followers. They didn’t expect the frenzy that followed. Seeing it as an investment, a swarm of remote customers want to buy the card, exposing the avarice just below the surface of many collecting communities. Director Jessica Love does an exceptional job orchestrating the emotional fire and angst such dilemmas inspire. The acting, which at first occasionally appeared too transparent, soon followed suit and began to fly.

Jo Tannous

Because the play is so full of substance, subplots continuously percolate and threaten to dominate your attention — including the one that seems to open the door for Lex to reveal his attraction to Corbin. Can Corbin see his friendship with Lex take on a new dimension?

Another narrative stream quite unexpectedly taps into the impact a trans child has on a family. When a young son or daughter becomes a different sex, the expectations a parent has for that child may also change. The Pilon traverses rarely explored ground by delving into what that might look like — and it does so with laudable intelligence and compassion.

Josh Razavi

Returning to Griffey and his quandary over his newfound treasure, what one personally values quickly rises to determine what he does. In this drama, the question becomes whether it will be the lure of profit or the pull of sentiment that rules the day. Watching the tug-of-war between the two — with a provocative twist tossed into the through-line for good measure — helps turn The Pilon into a thing of many-faceted splendor. Enough to quell any burgeoning cynicism and perhaps make you very glad to have ended up in a place you thought you never wanted to be.

photos by Wannabe Studio Photo
poster art by Skyler Simpson

The Pilon
Red Theater
The Edge Off Broadway, 1133 W. Catalpa Ave
Wed-Sat at 7:30; Sun at 3; Sat at 2 (Nov. 16)
ends on November 23, 2025
for tickets ($10-$50), visit Red Theater

for more shows, visit Theatre in Chicago