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'Mezzulah' examines a society poised for change
When: Through April 1 at 7 p.m. Tuesdays, 8 p.m. Wednesdays-Fridays, 5:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays
Where: City Theatre, 1300 Bingham and 13th Streets, South Side.
Admission: $15 to $45, $15 in advance for students and those 25 or younger and for those age 60 and older at the Box Office from two hours before showtime.
Details: 412-431-2489
Alice T. Carter is the theater critic for the Tribune-Review. She can be reached via e-mail or 412-320-7808.
This engaging, often very funny, play had its world premiere Wednesday evening at City Theatre on the South Side.
Many already know Lowe for her earlier play, "String of Pearls," which debuted at City Theatre in 2003. As in "String of Pearls," Lowe's latest play puts female characters and their concerns at the heart of the drama.
As you would rightly guess from its title, "Mezzulah, 1946," is set in the year following the end of World War II.
Michael Krass' costumes enhance the period flavor. So do snippets of period songs inserted throughout the show. Unfortunately, rather than advancing the story or action, the songs bring the play's action to a standstill.
"Mezzulah, 1946," takes place in Monroe, Wash., a small town where an aircraft factory is the chief employer.
The men are returning home from the war, and it's expected that the women who built the planes naturally will give up their jobs to make room for the veterans.
Many are happy to burn their slacks and go back to raising babies and baking cakes.
But not 19-year-old Mezzulah Steiner.
Airplanes and aerodynamics are her passion. Despite pressure from her company, her uncle, her friends and the guys in the town, she refuses to quit. Theo Allyn invests Mezzulah with all the good-natured spunk of a young woman unable to believe that conforming to society's expectations is a viable option.
While Mezzulah's story drives the play, Lowe's play is about more than one woman's fight to be herself.
Lowe expands her story with a huge collection of engaging, dynamic characters -- male and female -- all of whom are poised for change but unsure just how to do so. That creates a more intriguing play about taking the necessary risks to follow your own best path.
Mezzulah's mom, Mary Steiner, played with down-to-earth warmth and sensitivity by Sheila McKenna, is about to end her 20-year self-imposed mourning for her husband.
Even Horace (Brett Mack), Mezzulah's deceased father -- whom we see and with whom she converses -- is ready to move on.
The men, too, are redefining themselves as they attempt to find their places at work and home. Actors Joel Ripka, Jeffrey Carpenter and Johnny Giacalone and Larry Meyers as Mezzulah's gruff Uncle Charlie, all shape their characters into likable, yet complex, men in transition.
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