“Luna Gale” is gonna knock you for a wallop.
The powerful Rebecca Gilman play, St. Francis Theatre’s current offering, is disturbing, maddening, distressing. And riveting.
Gilman does not shy away from dealing with social issues in her plays. It was racism in “Spinning Into Butter,” obsession and stalking in “Boy Gets Girl.” “Luna Gale” takes on drugs, religion and the fate of an innocent child.
This Mark Klugheit-directed production is stark and powerful, and he pulled impressive performances out of his cast.
The play opens in a hospital waiting room. Clearly stoned Katie and Peter are awaiting word of their infant, Luna Gale, who had been ill for several days before they took her to get some care. They are trying to calm their jitters with mounds of junk food.
When the social worker Caroline comes in, she immediately recognizes the signs of meth addiction.
Thinking she is doing the right thing, she puts the child in the care of Katie’s evangelical mother, Cindy, while Peter and Katie try to get clean. Cindy decides, with the help of her pastor, to adopt the child before that happens.
The tense play keeps the audience on the edge of its seat thanks to a cast that brings the harrowing story to life.
India Osborne is almost constantly onstage as the social worker, Caroline, who clearly wrestles with what is best for the children she is charged with protecting. Osborne wore Caroline’s struggles, the weariness from the constant battles, with a truth that was painful.
Amy Scully and Cole Potwardowski as the drug-addicted parents were heartbreaking and infuriating.
And Joanne Mack Robertson’s Cindy seems so normal, so nurturing, until she begins to spew her religious beliefs.
This isn’t pretty theater. But it’s important theater about important topics. St. Francis Theatre’s bare-bones production makes that very clear.
