Review: TINKER TO EVERS TO CHANCE: You Gotta Have Heart

Tinker to Evers to Chance

Written by Mat Smart, Directed by Sean Daniels; Scenic Designer, Randall Parsons; Costume Designer, A. Lee Viliesis; Lighting Designer, Brian J. Lilienthal; Sound Designer, Stowe Nelson; Production Stage Manager, Casey Leigh Hagwood; Stage Manager, Danielle Zandri

CAST (in order of appearance): James Craven, Emily Kitchens

Performances through March 6 at Merrimack Repertory Theatre, 50 E. Merrimack Street, Lowell, MA; Box Office 978-654-4678 or www.mrt.org

When the Red Sox equipment truck pulls out of Fenway Park in early February and heads south to Ft. Myers, Florida for spring training, the hearts of all in Red Sox Nation lift in anticipation of the clarion call of "Play Ball!" and the triumphs to come in the season ahead. Notwithstanding the devastating results of the last two campaigns, we are of one mind that this could be the year when the local nine returns to their rightful place atop the heap as World Series champions. There is only one other franchise whose fans know the heartache and disappointment we've known (up until 2004) and that is the Chicago Cubs, the team that has not won a World Series since 1908. In Tinker to Evers to Chance, now in its regional premiere at the Merrimack Repertory Theatre in Lowell, playwright Mat Smart, a Cubs fan and Chicago native, demonstrates how a trio of die-hard fans finds connection and healing through their shared love of their hometown baseball team.

To honor the three great loves of his life - theatre, baseball, and his mother - Smart's play is about the relationship between a mother and daughter set against the backdrop of Wrigley Field. Continuing a long-standing tradition, Lauren (Emily Kitchens) comes home from New York to attend the Cubs' pivotal playoff game with her 74-year old mother, a recovering stroke victim. Upon her arrival at Mom's apartment, Lauren finds Nessa's home care aide RJ (James Craven), but no Nessa. When they fail to meet up at the ball park, Lauren goes back to RJ for answers as to her mother's whereabouts and state of mind.

A cryptic voice mail message from Nessa on Lauren's phone ("When is enough enough?") sheds little light on the situation, but alludes to words spoken by an aging Johnny Evers when his body had been decimated by a stroke. In a key flashback in the play, 17-year old Nessa sneaks away from home to visit the second baseman she idolizes and get him to autograph his old team jersey that he had given to her late grandmother decades earlier. Having just lost her grandmother and knowing that he had lost a daughter, Nessa asks for Evers' advice on perseverance. At first, he doesn't know what to say, but eventually responds with the words "enough is enough." Fast forward from the 1940s to 2003, and the visit serves as the basis for an unfinished play-within-the play that Nessa has written and left behind as a legacy of sorts. Like the taciturn Evers, RJ keeps his own counsel and Lauren suspects there is more to the story that he is unwilling to share.

Six months later, Lauren has still not heard from her mother, nor have investigators been able to track her down (although she took $2500 out of the bank). Back in Chicago for the opening day game, she presses RJ to disclose whatever secret he may be hiding. To her surprise, he hands her the completed (by him) script for Nessa's play and Lauren makes him read it aloud with her, hoping for a cathartic moment. Both characters have been forced by Nessa's absence to examine the choices they made in their relationships with her and the conclusion of the play-within-the play gives them a chance to make things right.

Smart focuses on the conflict between following your dreams and the duty you have to the people who raised you. Just as Nessa left home as a young woman to find out who she was meant to be, Lauren moved to New York to pursue her career. Although she temporarily interrupted her life to care for Nessa after the stroke, Lauren ultimately returned to the Big Apple. When her mother goes missing, Smart indicates that it serves as a wake-up call to the daughter, so it is a discrepant plot point that he has Lauren go back to New York with the situation unresolved. Similarly, RJ is drawn as a very capable and caring stand-up guy, so his stonewalling of Lauren seems out of character. One wonders what, if anything, transpired between them during the six months between visits.

In the flashbacks to 1906 and 1946, the actors portray the characters of Lauren's grandmother, young Nessa, and Evers as the star infielder and older, stroke victim. Costume designer A. Lee Viliesis helps define who's who, but Craven's body language, posture, and vocal alterations are particularly effective. Watch his transformation when he rises and walks from the scene in Evers' room to the next scene in RJ's apartment. It is stunning in its simplicity. For her part, Kitchens is authentic and delightful as the young Nessa excitedly meeting her hero. Although the audience never gets to meet the modern day Nessa, her persona is more easily imagined and understood after Kitchens brings her to life in this scene.

Tinker to Evers to Chance captures the commitment and irrational hope of the die-hard Cubs fans and makes the case for that being the bond between mother and daughter, but it may not appear to be sufficiently substantial to the baseball non-aficionados in the audience. I am a card-carrying member of Red Sox Nation and have been an avid follower of the national pastime since childhood, so much of the story resonated with me. However, my companion was unable to make that connection and found it less engaging. There is a lot of drama inherent in baseball, but sometimes the umpire is blind.

Photo credit: Meghan Moore (James Craven, Emily Kitchens)

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