If you crossed Thornton Wilder's 1938 drama, Our Town, with a Christopher Durang comedy, the result would be Middletown, Will Eno's new play that is currently on stage at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre. If you're looking for something quirky and unusual to see, this is it, folks. Everyone in Middletown - both the play and the small town that Eno introduces us to - is somewhere in the "middle" between birth and death. I enjoyed spending time with these people, especially Mary Swanson, a young newcomer who is anxious to start a family with her absent husband; John Dodge, Mary's eccentric neighbor; Craig, a wheelchair-bound mechanic; and the sweet town librarian who seems to be a friend to all. The most famous resident of Middletown - an astronaut - even briefly shows up in outer space to offer us his inner feelings. And then right before the intermission, we are introduced to five new characters, who represent "the audience" - and they have just finished watching Act One of Middletown, which they then proceed to discuss in what I consider one of the best scenes of the play. Then as their Act Two is about to begin, our Act One comes to an end. I was hoping that this amusing "play within a play" concept would continue in our Act Two, but instead Eno switches most of the action to a hospital, where the story eventually loses much of its quirky humor and becomes a rather depressing tale. I didn't like where Eno took his characters in the second act - and I was disappointed when the play's "audience" never returned to offer us their final critiques. I would've been curious to hear what they had to say.
