Hole in Two

Sometimes all it takes to shatter one’s illusion of contentedness is something small—a burned-out light bulb, a missing ladder, a torn contact lens. But there is nothing small about the tragedy that engulfs David Lindsay–Abaire’s Pulitzer–winning play Rabbit Hole. Down this hole lies despair and grief so deep it goes beyond melodrama to a place in the heart only the finest art can reach.

In lesser hands, the central tragedy of Rabbit Hole could easily devolve into a Hallmark tear-jerker, but the play avoids this fate by intelligently exploring the strained aftermath of a family’s unspeakable tragedy rather than milking it for cheap sobs. This is not to say that Rabbit Hole isn’t going to flood the Jungle Theater with tears of empathy, but director Bain Boehlke didn’t choose the play simply to tug on heartstrings.

“It’s a play about a family tragedy that is very contemporary,” says Boehlke. “They live in the suburbs. It’s a relatively upper-middle-class family. The people are very recognizable and the playwright’s language rings so pure and true. It’s definitely about us moderns; it’s not something from the forties or sixties or Hedda Gabler.”

Boehlke doesn’t want his audiences to have preconceived notions about the play, so he politely requested that the defining plot point not be revealed in this column. (If you want to know, Google it.) Suffice it to say, in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Alice follows a peculiar rabbit into its hole and encounters a twisted, illogical world. Lindsay–Abaire’s play shows that real life is the strangest absurdity of all. Opens March 28. Jungle Theater, 2951 Lyndale Ave. S., Mpls., 612-822-7063