Playwright John Patrick Shanley, whose drama “Doubt: A Parable
More Top Picks Alienware 16 Aurora Review
” won both the Pulitzer Prize for drama and Tony Award for best play in 2005, returns to a familiar setting for “Prodigal Son” — a Catholic school in the mid-1960s. But the latter play, which premiered off-Broadway in 2016, takes a more autobiographical approach, following a fictionalized version of Shanley through his turbulent years at an all-boys private prep school.JK Entertainment, a new nonprofit arts company, stages this slow-burning drama as its inaugural production, now playing at the Athenaeum Center.
In the fall of 2024, Elgin native Jonathan James produced and directed a stage adaptation of S.E. Hinton’s novel “The Outsiders” (a play adapted by Christopher Sergel, not to be confused with the recent Broadway musical), which sold out its month-long run at the Athenaeum. Aiming to build on this success, James co-founded JK Entertainment with Kyle Reid Hass and now directs “Prodigal Son,” which features several returning cast members from “The Outsiders.”
Broadly fitting into a genre popularized by “The History Boys,” “Dead Poets Society” and “Good Will Hunting,” this play centers on the influential relationships between protagonist Jim Quinn (Julian Rus) and three adults he gets to know at school. Concerned with weighty questions of morality and free will, Shanley makes the case that a single mentor’s belief in a troubled student can make all the difference for that kid’s future. A worthy (if not novel) theme, but unfortunately the script gets too caught up in philosophical discussions and lacks a satisfying dramatic arc, leaving many of the characters underdeveloped.
Rus gives an appealing performance as Jim, a 15-year-old from a blue-collar family in the Bronx. A dreamer with an artistic bent, his strong contrarian streak gets him expelled from his former high school, but headmaster Carl Schmitt (Steve Delaney) decides to take a chance on the bright boy by offering him a scholarship to Thomas More Preparatory School in New Hampshire. Over the next three years, Jim’s old habits of lying, stealing and drinking threaten to derail his progress as a passionate student of literature and a budding writer.
The first act frankly drags a bit, with no clear sense of where the action is headed, beyond the question: Will Jim make it to graduation or get kicked out of this school, too? In a series of two-hander scenes, we see him form relationships with Carl’s wife, Louise Schmitt (Maggie Kelly), and English teacher Alan Hoffman (John Pietrzyk). Both adults seem sincerely invested in Jim’s academic and personal growth, while the headmaster remains a kind but more distant and strict presence. Jim’s roommate, Austin Schmitt (Liam Pietrzyk), makes limited appearances but draws out different facets of Jim’s personality as he interacts with a peer.
Rus previously played Johnny Cade in James’ production of “The Outsiders,” and “Prodigal Son” gives him another coming-of-age story to sink his teeth into. He shows range in his portrayal of Jim’s transitional stage of life, blending boyish enthusiasm for heroic stories with a growing interest in girls and a stubborn need to challenge authority. Rus also rises to the occasion for several explosive scenes with older actors, though there’s room to explore more nuance in his zero-to-sixty mood shifts.
For much of the show, Carl, Louise and Alan are sidelined as supporting roles with little development of their own, though this imbalance is somewhat remedied by eleventh-hour reveals. Jim, too, lacks a backstory that would explain why he so often acts out in school. These factors made it harder to connect with the characters and diminished the impact of the final scenes, which are meant to be emotionally charged.
Adding another barrier between the actors and audience, this production employs microphones in a space that probably doesn’t need them. The Athenaeum’s upstairs studio is a black box with only eight rows of seats, and I suspect the dialogue would sound more natural here without amplification.
Also, the set design by John Pietrzyk and Kathi Campbell looks cramped, with four separate sections crowded into the limited space, including a bedroom on a raised platform that is only used in one scene. Though some of the set pieces and props provide helpful nods to the time period, a more minimalist approach would give the actors more breathing room.
With or without growing pains, it’s always exciting to witness the launch of a new theater company, and I’m curious what JK Entertainment’s next production will be (perhaps something totally different from stories about teenage boys?). According to its mission statement, the company aims to create work that “lives at the crossroad of art and activism,” a lofty goal but not unique among Chicago’s nonprofit theaters. JK Entertainment’s particular approach to arts-based activism remains to be seen.
Emily McClanathan is a freelance critic.
Review: “Prodigal Son” (2.5 stars)
When: Through Nov. 2
Where: JK Entertainment at the Athenaeum Center, 2936 N. Southport Ave.
Running time: 2 hours
Tickets: $26-$36 at athenaeumcenter.org