Beauty on the Vine

Chicago Reader

October 28, 2008
BY JUSTIN HAYFORD

Playwright Zak Berkman's overwrought, convoluted play starts as a story about the latent violence in America's culture war as sexpot right-wing radio star Lauren marries mixed-race liberal journalist Sweet and ends up murdered. Then it becomes sci-fi pulp as Sweet teams up with Lauren's hyperconservative, bird-watching father-in-law to track down women who've had plastic surgery in order to look exactly like Lauren. After taking the long way round several more barns, Berkman tries to shoehorn everything into a cautionary tale about the importance of female self-confidence. It's hard to know why accomplished director Jason Kae would find this play worth his time, but he works his usual magic and draws psychologically detailed, emotionally convincing performances from his Backstage Theatre cast. The guy's a genius.

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