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TimeOut

TimeOut Chicago Review
THEATER PREVIEW | By Megan Powell
November 22, 2007

One of the characters in Defiance is reading the 1970 book Future Shock by “futurologist” Alvin Toffler, who argued that individuals were unable to cope with society’s “acceleration of change.” The future, the character observes, will hit “us like a truck.” The Chicago premiere of Shanley’s play hits with the force and chaos of a once-ordered world out of control, but also soars with the dexterity of a writer who’s lived the material. In 1971, Toffler’s freaky but prescient vision was clear in a country ruptured by cultural tumult and a never-ending war, and Shanley was a marine based at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina among men who had returned from the horrors of Vietnam in what Toffler called a “crucible of racial trouble.”

Defiance , too, is a crucible in which Shanley seamlessly deploys the multiple dilemmas of that troubled epoch within the tensions of his characters, and Next’s production, in a compact and riveting 90 minutes, heats it up well. Lt. Col. Littlefield ( Pickering , cunningly etching a career military man with gosh-darnit persuasiveness rather than goddamn-it barking) promotes young Capt. King—a reputation-making move since the tightly wound marine is black, and Littlefield is seeking one “clean, shiny achievement” to conclude his own career. While Shanley’s characters can argue epically, the clash between Pickering and Khepera’s almost too-severe King is strangely cool. But Fisher, her drawl like honey on a chain saw, easily ladles Southern charm over the inner toughness of Littlefield’s wife, bringing the show back to a boil. And the unctuous manipulations of the new chaplain (Wycoff, a sinewy proto–Joel Osteen) jolts both men, conditioned to follow orders. Despite inevitable comparison to Shanley’s 2004 Pulitzer pick Doubt, this damn fine work salutes the future defiantly on its own.

4 stars (out of 6)