Variations on Justice

At the Theatre Project through May 27

Run of the Mill's annual "Variations" show gives 10 playwrights a chance to take a word and build a mini-play around it. Last year the word was "fear," the year before "desire." "Justice"--this year's choice--might sound like a rabble-rouser. It's a word whose definition has been polarizing this country politically, economically, and socially over the last few years--and, arguably, since the 18th century.

Whatever the papers have been saying, though, didn't resonate with the playwrights represented in this 10-play sampler. The take on the subject was low key, and in some ways reluctant to come up with any sort of interpretations of the word at all. If anything, the 10 playwrights gave that besieged word a break and allow it to speak for itself. Sometimes it does; sometimes it doesn't.

On one hand, the somewhat tangential approach is refreshing. There are no ventures into the obvious--private vs. public, freedom of speech, torture, etc. On the other hand, it might be a little disturbing. Justice has been taking some hard knocks. Shouldn't people be yapping about those subjects, and struggling with definitions, principally because it's going by the wayside?

Most of the playwrights in this program sounded reluctant to go out on a limb with the word, and even a little contemptuous of those who did. But if "Fear" and "Desire" sparked visceral actions in years past, this particular selection of plays was faithful to the sense of helplessness that thinking about the bigger picture leaves people with today.

That sense of ambiguity was best articulated in the evening's first five plays. Kathleen Barber's "Legs" is an encounter between two amputees--a 33-year-old Iraq war veteran and a 52-year-old woman--engaged in an extended discussion about whether they're getting what they deserve. Dwight Cook's "CPR Productions" toys with the idea of achieving balance, but it was difficult to follow, although somewhere, in its interior, there was a very interesting idea lurking. John Conley's "Armchair and Picket" involves a low-key encounter between a young girl going out to protest and her parents, who have already been there, done that. Kimberley Lynne's "Finial" gets its title from the word meaning, basically, "what you screw on top of a lampshade to prevent it from falling off"; it deals with some of the intricacies of women's rights. "Snake and Onion" is Gavin Heck's contribution for the evening, and it starts out with two primitive carnivorous humans ripping away at a gigantic rope-shaped serpent, while their proto-vegan counterparts watch warily from a distance. Ultimately, the meat-eaters get what they deserve.

The second half of the evening made the connection with the justice theme a little more self-evident. Perennial playwright Joe Dennison's "Feed the Meter" involves an optometrist who's suspiciously eager to do his jury duty. Chris Graybill's "Probate" takes the same courtroom angle on hypocrisy, by pairing off two sisters who are trying to figure out what to do with their father's will. "Alien to Antiquity," by Stacey Lane, was the evening's cleverest play, and the most disturbing. A golf-playing businessman and his trusty sidekick decide that the iconic figure of Justice has worn out her welcome. "The Body Washer," by Rosemary Toohey, supplies the evening's closest connection to current history, as a journalist, a body-washer, and a woman in the National Guard all try to maintain their moral equilibrium in a world where standards have pretty much gone out the window. Rich Espey, another veteran playwright, offered a suitable cap to the evening with "Memoir," in which a right-wing Southern governor finds himself in a hospice with a gay black male nurse. The premise sounds contrived, but the play is genuinely affecting, ending the series on an appropriately low-key note.

The evening moved quickly, always a bonus with 10-play productions. There was some very good acting, particularly by David Mitchell, who manages the parts of a one-legged vet and a gay nurse with equal authority. Some plays stood out, but "Variations" shouldn't be looked at as a play festival; it's a collaborative effort by a group of playwrights, actors, and directors to work together and come to terms with a word. Taken it on that level, the evening was a revealing look at the way the word itself has been internalized and trampled on. By the end of the evening, we were no closer to a definition than at the beginning. Justice is a lost, sometimes wandering concept that, despite all the hullabaloo, people can only learn about on their own.