Bed Hopping with Lucinda

Lucinda's Bed by local Chicago playwright Mia McCullough runs now through November 8^th at Chicago Dramatists.  McCullough, a resident playwright for the Dramatists, describes Lucinda's Bed as a "tragi-comedy" "...exploring what it means to be good surrounded by sexuality."  Under the direction of Jessi D. Hill, the production stars Elizabeth Laidlaw as the title character, Doug MacKechnie as her husband Adam and Lucas Neff as the Monster (www.chicagodramatists.org)

McCullough takes the audience on Lucinda's journey from her Twin to Queen to no bed at all, while she wrestles with the monster located underneath and within her soul.  Laidlaw's performance as Lucinda can be described as no less than elegant, specifically when dealing with the tougher parts of Lucinda's college years. MacKechnie also deserves special note for his nuanced performance as Adam, especially when wrestling with the demons of the older damaged Lucinda.

While the performances in this production deserve note, I wrestle with how I feel about this play on a whole.  I support the promotion of local playwrights, especially women.  However, Lucinda's Bed plays into every stereotyped moment of a woman's life: self-consciousness, violence, guilt, fear.  Don't get me wrong.  A stereotype is a stereotype because there is some kernel of truth to it.   Who hasn't had to reread Camille Paglia on occasion?  However, McCullough seems to allow her heroine's life to be defined by one moment and by doing that, the play became as predictable as Lifetime Television.  I accept McCullough's choice to have her lead dissolve into an anti-hero.  Some of the greatest female roles in theatre history are anti-heroes, but Lucinda becomes an anti-hero by giving up.  And when she does give up, I stopped caring.   

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