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Regional Reviews: St. Louis The Details also see Richard's review of Two Jews Walk Into a War
When neighborhoods lose their old homeowners and new ones move in, we call it "turning over," as if perhaps the ground were being tilled for new plantings. And Mr. Burke (as Mr. Hoffmann) is the last of the previous generation to go. The actor is smooth and a bit gruff (the character is 87, so who can blame him?), but has no reason to hide a long list of unpleasant truths, especially about married life. Which works out great, because Mr. Jackson (Mr. Tucker) has just been locked out of his house next door, by his own wife. So, there are no women on stage (Mrs. Hoffmann died four months earlier). And yet, absent wives dominate the story. The Details opens up time itself to us as a crazy peristalsis to devour us all. And we're lumped together in that digestive process through marriage and family: husbands and wives, like steak and potatoes, breaking down and becoming one thing that somehow nourishes all the rest. There really aren't any food metaphors in the show. But there is an implacable sense that husbands everywhere, in particular, are all caught in the grasp of a much larger process. And that we must endure on the "rocky path" of marriage. It becomes clear that somehow, women call the shots. And when we are cast out of their world, or left behind in death, life becomes the grimmest sort of existentialism. It seems terribly unfair, but in The Details, wedded life is strangely ennobling. The play's got its share of honest laughs, and the fact that Mr. Burke is white and Mr. Tucker is Black adds to most of the lovely back-and-forth. When the older man tries to hand off a scrapbook, to make himself remembered, or when the younger man wants to go in together on the price of some landscaping, their wives' work seems complete, and the men finally get their due. At least on behalf of their women. The Details, produced by First Run Theatre, runs through August 3, 2025, at Kranzberg Arts Center, 501 N. Grand, St. Louis MO. For tickets and information, please visit www.FirstRunTheatre.org. Cast: Production Staff: |
