Early on in “Keerah,” the very intriguing new Chicago play from Netta Walker that begins in a cafe on Milwaukee Avenue, it feels like you are watching a movie — a rom-com of tortured, hyperliterate souls inspired by “Normal People” and “Love Jones,” the latter still being one of my favorite Chicago films.
But after intermission, when there is quite the misdirect, you realize that there is an apt third comparison, the trilogy of “Before Sunrise,” “Before Sunset” and “Before Midnight.”
McKenzie Chinn, the multi-hyphenate director of Walker’s play at Definition Theatre, which stars Walker herself, has been involved in several movies and she knows how to cross-fade scenes and craft smooth transitions and scores. The beguiling playlist accompanying “Keerah” was chosen with uncommon thought and nuance, with lyrics matching the themes of the show to a degree I only fully realized on the way home when I tried to replicate part of it in my car.
Yet more importantly, she knows how to coax intimate, revealing performances from her actors.
We’re concerned here with two intertwined 20-something couples. In each case, the relationship is between a Black woman and a white man or, more specifically, an Irish man, since these are two guys on J-1 visas, temporary workers in Chicago. In Act 1, we hear much about the degree to which Irish people can or should be considered white, and to what degree they are aligned with the Black struggle — which makes sense as it surely would be what the central couple, played by Walker and Beck Nolan, would talk about as they navigate their relationship, both empowered by their highly educated erudition (they are literature-major types) and struggling to survive against a constant need to analyze every last moment. Meanwhile, Lucy (Cat Christmas) functions as a kind of best friend-truth teller until she, too, becomes embroiled with Finn (Jacob Coggshall) and they embark on a different kind of potential relationship.
I hesitate to reveal where all this goes in Act 2, beyond noting that time has passed and recriminations have set in. What you thought you were watching in Act 1 is not necessarily what you were watching.
It’s not unusual for premieres of new works by early-career authors to be too long, but this one is way, way too long, clocking in at over two and a half hours on opening night. That length doesn’t serve the story in so intimate a theater, not least because it puts such unrealistic pressure on the actors to keep everything fresh. They simply cannot, and thus what reads for so much of the time as in-the-moment, spontaneous performances — recognizable by anyone who has been in a comparable romantic situation — ends up having so much repetition that you don’t believe it the same way anymore. If this show were two hours rather than closer to three, it would work so much better.
I suspect Walker was interested in writing a screenplay with a leading role for herself and that this was a first step to production. Fair enough. Nothing wrong with that approach. You gotta get stuff up so people can notice you and she’s ideally cast in the role she wrote for herself. She’s super-talented, too.
But Walker also has to appreciate that while movies like “Normal People” can accommodate deep dives into characters slowly evolving over time, plays (at least those not written by Chekhov) simply require things to complicate more quickly. And that’s the problem here: not enough happens, not for two and a half hours of stage time. Walker has to add, or cut. Ideally both. And she also has to ensure that some of her revelations in Act 2 are entirely credible. These days, works that turn on people not knowing things about their exes have social media to worry about, although, to be fair, I was not entirely clear of the year in Act 2. People still had very small phones.
All that said, this is still a way-cooler-than-most show. I know from past conversations that the very talented Chinn is interested in works featuring sophisticated Black characters living smart lives in this city, not forever dealing with gun violence, racism or other traumas, and she knows how to make them come alive with both a solid foundation and a light and intimate touch. Walker here adds a vista into young Chicagoans navigating the Hipster Highway. Aside from the acting talent (all four performers are both skilled and entirely in the game here), the show has some real charm and a just a cool vibe.
“Keerah” needs a lot of attention to Act 2, but it bops along delightfully in Act 1 as everyone talks James Joyce and Frederick Douglass and recites Shakespearean sonnets from memory.
In between downing shots of Malört, an act that even an Irishman finds perplexing.
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic
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Review: “Keerah” (3 stars)
When: Through June 28
Where: Definition Theatre, 1160 E. 55th St.
Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes
Tickets: $29-$39 at definitiontheatre.org