On the Spot Theatre Company misses the mark with “Eugene,” Michael Brayndick’s dutiful but dull adaptation of Honore Balzac’s “Pere Goriot.” Set in 1819 Paris, during the Bourbon Restoration, Balzac’s novel contains many elements — part bildungsroman, part social comedy, part existential mystery.
But Brayndick, who also directs, hasn’t decided which of these elements would make the novel most stageworthy. The end result is a rather sodden and one-note affair, further hampered by uneven performances and cheap production values that distract from the trajectory of the story.
The title character, Eugene de Rastignac (Joe Kloehn), is a poor law student eager to make his way in society. He falls in love with a married woman, Delphine de Nucingen (Emma Brayndick), who is also the daughter of “Father Goriot” (John McDonnell). The latter is a grain merchant and Eugene’s neighbor in a down-at-heels boarding house who has all but bankrupted himself in order to advance Delphine and her sister, Antastasie (Millie Rose).
The distinctions and similarities between the grim world of the boarding house (whose fellow inhabitants include a disinherited young woman and her chaperone, a medical student, and an all-around gambler and rogue) and the glittery-but-grasping world of upper-crust Parisian society needs to come into much clearer focus for Brayndick’s adaptation to work. He would probably also be better served by letting an outside hand offer dramaturgical and directing support. It’s clear that he has great affection for the source material. But that affection alone isn’t enough to carry us through the two-and-a-half hours of a play where the dramatic stakes never feel urgent and immediate.
REVIEW: “Eugene” by On the Spot Theatre Company
1.5 STARS
Through Aug. 16 at Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave.; $20 at 773-404-7336 or greenhousetheater.org
Kerry Reid is a freelance critic.
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