(from left) Joey Parsons, Erika Rolfsrud, Jo Twiss, Alec Silberblatt and Dylan Chalfy in TheaterWorks' production of Rabbit Hole. Photo by Lanny Nagler.

TheaterWorks' production of "Rabbit Hole" a sensitive study of loss and hope

Three Stars (good)
Theater: TheaterWorks
Location: 233 Pearl St. Hartford.
Production: By David Lindsay-Abaire. Directed by Rob Ruggiero. Set
design by Luke Hegel-Cantarella. Lighting design by John Lasiter.
Costume design by Anne Kenney. Sound design by Vincent Olivieri.
Running time: Two hours, one intermission
Show Times: Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. Fridays
and Saturdays — 8 p.m. Matinees on Saturdays and Sundays — 2:30 p.m.
Extra Sunday evening shows — 7:30 p.m. The show will run through July
20.
Tickets: Unassigned seating is $37; $47 on Friday and Saturday nights.
Center reserved seats $11 extra. $10 student rush tickets at showtime
with valid ID (subject to availability). For tickets call 527-7838 or
visit their Web site at www.theaterworks.org.

ACTOR…CHARACTER

Erika Rolfsrud … Becca
Dylan Chalfy … Howie
Joey Parsons … Izzy
Jo Twiss … Nat
Alec Silberblatt … Jason

By Kory Loucks
published in the Journal Inquirer June 19, 2008

HARTFORD — We live in a world that would probably like to eradicate
death, along with loss and sadness. And with all that modern science
and medicine can do, our lives today are epically improved over those
who lived even a generation ago.

Still, there are probably few things more horrid or devastating than
experiencing the sudden loss of a child. "Rabbit Hole," a 2007
Pulitzer Prize-winning play by David Lindsay-Abaire, begins eight
months after a four-year-old boy tragically dies chasing his dog into
the street and is accidentally hit by a car driven by a 17-year-old
boy.

The mother of the four-year-old, Becca, is a perfectionist homemaker,
played by Erika Rolfsrud, who has a striking resemblance to the actor
Reese Witherspoon. Her younger sister, Izzy, played with humor by Joey
Parsons, is the bad girl who hangs out in bars, and whose life is as
messy as Becca's is hyper-controlled.

"How can you get fired from Applebee's?" Becca asks Izzy in dismay, to
which Izzy dismisses vaguely, saying; "It was all politics."
Becca's husband Howie is played believably by Dylan Chalfy. Howie is
attempting to cope with his son's death by attending grief groups with
other parents, but Becca finds no comfort in comparing notes with
others. The "it was meant to be" philosophy leaves her flat.

Jo Twiss plays Nat, the down-to-earth mother of Becca and Izzy, with a
refreshing unsophisticated frankness. Nat's discussion with the family
about the hubris and curse of the Kennedy clan is amusing, despite the
recent Ted Kennedy cancer diagnosis.

It gives the play's heavy theme some much-needed comic relief, at one
point Nat says; "All those good-looking people falling out of the
skies" is a shame.

Twiss' Nat has her own long-term loss to cope with. She lost a grown
drug-addicted son to suicide, which comes it's own compendium of
baggage. She tells Becca that time changes grief. "It changes-the
weight of it. Like a brick in your pocket. It's what you have instead
of your son," she says.

Then there is the guilt and tragedy of the 17-year-old boy, Jason, who
accidentally killed the child. Played with sensitively by Alec
Silberblatt — his own private torment and confession are devastating
and heartbreaking.

The combination kitchen and living room set, plus the child's bedroom,
designed by Luke Hegel-Cantarella, looks right out of a Pottery Barn
catalog, complete with white wainscoting and a glass bowl filled with
lemons on the granite countertop — just the kind of place one would
imagine eating crème brulee and lemon squares, which they do.

In the end, "Rabbit Hole" isn't just about loss, but the courage
to choose life, and the willingness to moving forward with
forgiveness, compassion, and love.