NY Fringe Festival Review: Look After You

Look After You
Presented by: Maieutic Theatre Works-MTWorks
Writer: Louise Flory
Director: Michele Pace

Summary:
Hannah (playwright Louise Flory), the recent victim of a brain aneurysm is recovering well physically, though some memory still hasn’t returned. Her boyfriend Jake (Jason Altman) helps with exercises, but sort f hopes she doesn’t regain one memory: his asking her to marry him. Overwhelmed by the fact that the aneurysm could re-occur and end any time they might have together, Jake isn’t sure what he wants.

Additional stress is added to their household with a visit from Hannah’s overbearing sister, Lucy (Adi Kurtchik), and by Jake’s best friend, Paul (Lowell Byers), reminding Hannah about the upcoming wedding she doesn’t remember.

Flory’s script stands out because it doesn’t study the illness, or how Hannah’s copes with it, but focuses instead on the relationships between the characters and how the aftermath of the illness affects them, often using humor to keep the tone from becoming too depressing. Paul is the least developed of the characters, but the other three have some depth which allows the actors to explore a range of emotions.

Hannah seems the least concerned with the future, including whether or not it includes a wedding. Coming near to death has given her confirmation about what she wants: a life with Jake, marriage or no. We feel for Jake as he grapples with emotions he doesn’t want to feel and we glimpse the depth of feeling Lucy has for her sister despite a self-absorbed lifestyle. How they “find their way back to their lives” is the crux of this thoughtful work.

Highlights:
• Script

Lowlights:
• Costumes for the women are very unflattering and out of date.

Christians might also like to know:
• Language
• Couple lives together

Fringe Tassels Awarded: 3

VENUE #16: The SoHo Playhouse
The run has ended.

--Lauren Yarger