Evie's Waltz

The Magic Theatre's new artistic director, Loretta Greco, has hit a second solid home run with Evie's Waltz. It takes about half an hour before you realize how enthralling and complex Carter W. Lewis' new drama really is. At first, it seems to be a rather clichéd struggle of ideals between "crazy dangerous" teenager Evie (for whom everything is "lame") and her boyfriend's disconnected suburban parents (everything is better with alcohol and denial), but after the second gunshot, all this changes. Lewis constructs an unrelenting crucible set on the parents' back porch, placing their son (who never appears) up the hill, watching the action through the telescopic sight of a loaded hunting rifle. On one level, Waltz is a multilayered look at family dysfunction in which every character has inflicted painful psychological damage on the others. On another, it's a far-reaching commentary on the highly volatile disconnect between well-meaning parents and the teenage search for identity. The tension between the sarcastic, alcoholic Gloria (Julia Brothers) and her happy-go-lucky, lying husband, Clay (Darren Bridgett), could be a thrilling drama itself, with all the fire of Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? But throw in the young, righteous, and destructive Evie (Marielle Heller), and this play explodes into a thought-provoking Columbine-esque Romeo and Juliet.