It's entirely possible that some may be reluctant to attend "Rabbit Hole" when they learn that its central issue is the accidental death of a young child.
If you've experienced a similar loss or only dread the idea of it, David Lindsay-Abaire's drama may be too painful. Alternately, this emotionally charged show about a family in various stages of coping and recovery may help heal.
The characters are highly intelligent. They talk a lot, often squabble and frequently vent. Nonethess, they all have difficulty communicating.
The playwright's son, Nicholas, was 3 when Lindsay-Abaire wrote "Rabbit Hole," in part as good drama and partially as a way to confront the thing that scared him the most.
The result was a thoroughly engrossing play that won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
The Pittsburgh Public Theater production that opened Friday night is realistic without being tragic, sentimental or weepy, and it's often surprisingly funny.
The play begins months after the accident as a prosperous suburban couple, the wife's mother and sister and a young-high school student are still processing the experience.
As husband Howie and wife Becca, Dylan Chalfy and Ericka Rolfsrud present a couple who are emotionally adrift and often at odds now that the central focus of their life has vanished.
Becca copes by baking, cleaning and boxing up her son's toys, clothes and drawings. Howie watches videotapes, withdraws to the computer and plays squash.
Director Rob Ruggiero guides them as they celebrate family holidays and turning points or simply interact as an extended family. There are moments of real warmth and humor.
Joey Parsons and Jo Twiss lighten the proceedings as Becca's unconventional but well-meaning sister and outspoken, working-class mother.
Alec Silverblatt plays high-school senior Jason with a delightful sense of appropriate discomfort and awkwardness.
Ruggiero keeps the tension lurking just below the surface and allows it to erupt at appropriate moments.
Don't allow Luke Hegel-Cantarella's attractive, neat and highly realistic set design delude you into mistaking this for one of those very special TV dramas where characters serve as delivery systems for problems and a happy resolution.
Lindsay-Abaire is best known for his non-realistic plays, which include "Fuddy Meers" and "Wonder of the World".
As in those other plays, "Rabbit Hole" moves everyone ahead without supplying a universal, simplistic or sentimental resolution.
That's one of the things that makes this play so rewarding.
Even after it ends, you find yourself wondering how its characters are doing and how their lives and relationships are evolving.
Additional Information:
'Rabbit Hole'
Produced by: Pittsburgh Public TheaterWhen: Through May 18 with performances at 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays (except today when there is just an 8 p.m. show), 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays
Admission: $30-$49; $15 for full-time students or anyone 26 and younger, with valid ID, in advance for all performances except on Friday and Saturday evenings, when this rate is available at the door only, one hour prior to curtain.
Where : O'Reilly Theater, 621 Penn Ave., Downtown
Details: 412-316-1600
