Amidst the current blitzkrieg of corruption currently happening from the new presidential administration in this country, it’s difficult to gather focus to write a theater review. I mean, it’s difficult to concentrate on anything right now, no matter one’s job – we are in perilous, uncharted waters. How do we deal with this? Thematically, that’s the underlying point of Will Arbery’s Evanston Salt Costs Climbing, an unspoken mounting sense of panic about the state of the world. It seems like an appropriate topic at the moment, and the west coast premiere at Rogue Machine is a strong, brilliantly acted production of an entertaining, well-meaning but somewhat uneven play.
In January 2014, Evanston, Illinois is in the midst of a polar vortex, which has created the need for a great deal of municipal snow removal. Peter (Michael Redfield) and Basil (Hugo Armstrong) are the two men who drive the truck that salts the roads, a cold and sometimes treacherous job. Their boss, Maiworm (Lesley Fera), is excited about a newspaper piece that quoted her by name, although Peter grumbles that neither he nor Basil were mentioned. Maiworm’s daughter, Jane Jr. (Kaia Gerber), however, is paralyzed by endless anxiety, a condition which will gradually begin to affect them all.
Fera is excellent as Maiworm in a detailed portrayal that finds all the humor in the layers of her character’s reality. She ably demonstrates her abundant talent, but her performance completely serves the play. Redfield is very good as Peter, but his character as written is a bit more one-note-unpleasant than it needs to be. Gerber does what she can with the one role that the playwright didn’t seem to know what to do with, although she does get to deliver the thesis statement of the piece. Armstrong delivers an acting tour de force as Basil with his completely inhabited performance – a wild and hilarious portrayal that always feels fully in the moment and electric with potential. Armstrong has been one of the best actors in L.A. theater for a while now, but he is still clearly in top form, and his work here is a marvel.
Director Guillermo Cienfuegos gets superb work from his cast, and his staging uses the space very well (especially the truck sequences, which effectively create the illusion of driving through a polar vortex on the Matrix stage). The pacing may be a bit elongated, though – on opening night the show went about twenty minutes longer than its stated ninety-five-minute runtime. Arbery is a talented writer, and there is plenty of wit and intelligence on display in Evanston. In his attempt to discuss a current sense of global anxiety (whether its source derives from humanity or climate change), however, his conclusions are unnecessarily vague. “There’s something under everything and it’s making us all want to die,” says Jane Jr. in the play. This may not be untrue, but Arbery’s depiction of this at the end of the piece feels a bit silly and unsatisfying.
There is much to recommend in Evanston Salt Costs Climbing, from amazing performances to amusing writing, even if the play itself doesn’t quite stick the landing.
Evanston Salt Costs Climbing is presented by Rogue Machine Theatre at the Matrix Theatre and plays through March 9, 2025. Tickets are available here.
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