The House of Blue Leaves

Pittsburgh City Paper - Performance: "The House of Blue Leaves

Theatrical fashion is a funny thing. In this job I often go through waves when a particular play suddenly pops up on everyone’s schedule over a period of a few years and then disappears for the longest time.

South Park Theatre presents one such work, The House of Blue Leaves, by John Guare. I remember when you couldn’t step inside a theater without getting this dysfunctional-family comedy/drama smacked into your face. But, watching it, I realized that it had been years since anyone had produced it.

Whether this production foreshadows a coming glut remains to be seen, but I can’t say that I would mind too much. While it’s not one of my favorite Guare plays (Six Degrees of Separation and the luminous Landscape of the Body are my top two), Blue Leaves has much to recommend it. Guare writes in an odd but rewarding urban-poetic style, and the contest between contentment and despair fueling all of his work is always fun to watch.

Lynn DeBree directs the South Park production with the precise blend of comedy and aching sadness that is essential with any of Guare’s work. In the oeuvre, Blue Leaves is notable for its wild, farce-like elements, and DeBree and her cast take the show to the farthest limits of the playwrigh"