Liam Pietrzyk and Julian Rus Photo courtesy of JK Entertainment

Prodigal Son covers a two-year period in the life of Jim Quinn, an intelligent searcher from the Bronx whose curiosity, combined with his troublemaking ways, ultimately land him a scholarship to an exclusive Catholic boarding school for boys in New Hampshire. Over the course of his junior and senior years, Jim's penchant for larceny and fist fights endear him to few of of his classmates, and his compulsion to produce schoolwork designed to provoke places him in a precarious position, even in relation to the teachers who may be inclined to believe in him.

The play is divided into longish scenes, primarily between Jim and others (his roommate, the headmaster, his English teachers), with more occasional interludes between the adults. Although most of these are compelling, the dialogue sometimes veers into something stilted and mannered. But more important is the fact that the overall dramatic arc never quite finds its feet. Vietnam is a theme early on, as Jim's brother is in the service, but this disappears without comment later. Moreover, the run-time is about two hours, and very close to the end, there are two "reveals" that, regardless of how rooted in Shanley's past they are, call into question what it is that he and the play are actually interested in.

Regardless of how well the play itself lands, though, the production is very well done. Kathi Campbell's scenic design is impressively detailed and versatile. Stage right serves as the office of headmaster Carl Schmitt. Stage left is the home he shares with his wife Louise, who also acts as Jim's semi-private honors English teacher. Between these two spaces, the floor is pointedly black and bare, allowing center stage to variously serve as a diner, a classroom, and so on, while also conveying the complex ways in which private and professional lives bleed into one another, despite the theoretical separation between them.

Perhaps the most impressive element of the set is the dormitory bedroom that Jim Quinn shares with Austin Schmitt, the headmaster's nephew. This is raised well above the main floor and backed by a miniature rendering of the front of the school. The difference in eye level and the way that Campbell plays with scale here convey both the confinement of the school itself and the surveillance the boys are constantly under. This offers a smart visual interrogation of what in Jim's reactions is and is not within the boundaries of "normal" teenage rebellion.

The sound design by Michael Incardone does important work in capturing both busy spaces like the diner where Jim and Schmitt first meet and the comparative silence within the school, which is broken only by an ominous grandfather clock in the headmaster's office. Moreover, the design blends in classic recordings of poetry important to Jim, which adds an important element of teenage intellectual and emotional fire. The lighting by Rick Keeley also very capably supports both elements of the production design.

As Jim Quinn, Julian Rus is awfully good. Though certainly this is the character that Shanley renders most carefully and lovingly, it's not difficult to see how less careful direction or a less skillful performance could have Jim wearing out his welcome. Instead, Rus captures what is compelling about Jim, even when he is at his worst or most frustrating.

The scene between Jim and his roommate, Austin (Liam Pietrzyk), is a particularly good one in which two very different young men connect and clash with one another in complex ways that are moving and realistic. The work the two do together makes one wish that Austin were a more prominent character.

As headmaster Carl Schmitt, Steve Delaney does a good job of working with a character that is less fully fleshed out. He and Rus work well together in the stronger scenes between the two, but Delaney, along with Maggie Kelly as Schmitt's wife Louise, perhaps deserves more credit for tackling some of the less naturalistic interactions in a way that genuinely humanizes.

As Jim's English teacher and mentor, Alan Hoffman, John Pietrzyk's performance has its moments of strength, but this is the least well-written character in the play, and Pietrzyk can't quite overcome, in particular, the eleventh hour moment when Hoffman not only makes a sexual advance toward Jim, but does so in a way that is explicitly predatory, as he attempts to punish Jim for rejecting him by trying to sabotage his ability to graduate. To be clear, Pietrzyk and Rus are engaging together when the material is well-considered, and it's questionable whether there is any read on the Hoffman character that could salvage this narrative awkwardness in the hands of any actor.

Prodigal Son, produced by JK Entertainment, runs through November 2, 2025, at the Athenaeum Theater, 2936 N. Southport, Chicago IL. For tickets and information, please visit www.jkentertainment.org.