Rabbit Hole

Navposter_1Rabbit Hole is the latest play at the Manhattan Theater Club which is playing at the Biltmore Theater.  I have not been thrilled with their productions this year but Rabbit Hole has made up for them. 

The play is a solid drama.  A couple living in Connecticut, who optimize perfection, she bakes, he works, they have done well financially, etc. has tragedy come knocking at their door.  Their four year old child is killed.  The life as they know it no longer exists.  Grief is now the central theme of their lives.

Cynthia Nixon plays the mother, Becca.  She is really a good actress.  Her sister, played by Mary Garrison, is another main character.  Where as Becca is perfect, her sister is more on the wild side.  Her mother, played by Tyne Daley, had lost her son too years before.  The father, played by John Slattery, is excellent. 

What is interesting about the play is how all of their lives change over time.  Also, the grieving between the husband and wife.  One deals with grief in a completely different way than the other.  They also don’t necessarily go through the same stages of grief together.  That is probably why you find some marriages can’t handle tragedy.  It rips you apart. 

The other character is a young teenage boy, who happened to hit the kid with his car swerving away from not hitting the dog.  It was an accident but his guilt is apparent too.  He wants to connect with the parents because he wants to be forgiven.  A tragedy all the way around.

Eventually, life moves on, but moves on differently. 

Some of the acts were better than others.  But as a whole, it made you think about how delicate life really is.  How relationships can change.  How life can change.  To be lucky for what you have today.