Youth is wasted on the young, the saying goes. But would we want youth any later in life? Beth Hyland’s Seagulls, now playing at Oak Park Festival Theatre, serves as a reminder that youth comes at a time when we have the energy to plow through it.
Energy, plus optimism and naivety, radiate from the stage at first. Billed as an “indie rock musical,” the 90-minute show, directed by Rebecca Willingham, draws inspiration from Chekhov’s The Seagull but charts its own course. It follows four college students as their band, Seagulls, begins to take off and the pitfalls of making art and love together become evident.
Con (Ryan Kirby), the band leader, lives in the shadow of his mother, a faded rock star, and describes himself as her “dumb potato son.” Con’s girlfriend Nina (Aurora Penepacker), a singer and composer in her own right, lives in Con’s creative shadow. Masha (Veronique Le), who wears black so she can “look like a hot widow,” harbors feelings for Con even though she’s in a relationship with Simon (Julio Cesar Gutierrez). And Simon adores Masha even though he knows her heart isn’t wholly in it.
After winning a battle-of-the-bands competition, Seagull members call their parents with the good news, a brief scene that conveys much about the power of parental bonds during the college years. For Con, it’s pretty complicated. Nina’s favorite songs aren’t the ones that he has written for her; her favorites are those of his mother’s boyfriend Ben.
In “Muse,” Nina’s own song, which Penepacker performs with impressive vocal strength and accompanies on an acoustic guitar, she sends Con a message: “Don’t wanna be your muse/You make me feel used.” Like several numbers in the show, it skitters musically and lyrically between overly simplistic and refreshingly simple. Later, Gutierrez strums “Anyway” on a ukelele, singing of Simon’s unrequited love for Masha and making up in appealing earnestness what the number lacks in subtlety.
Some dramatic details also hamper the show’s effectiveness. Con’s mother and boyfriend remain offstage, essential to the plot but never seen. Simon and Masha, delightful characters in their own right, mostly drop out of the action for a long spell, then return at a new place in their relationship. While Nina becomes a celebrity, Con descends into drug and alcohol use, a serious problem that is never fully addressed and leaves another gap in our understanding of these heady young people.
Perhaps the most convincing narrative belongs to Nina, who learns too late that she should have heeded Con’s initial warnings about Ben. The renowned musician springboards her career but exploits her sexually while her followers harass her on social media. When they get together after Nina has become famous, Masha tells her friend that she’s putting on “a sad cool girl” act. Unfortunately, the sadness is very real. Penepacker’s interpretation of Ryland’s character is a sensitive journey from innocence to experience. Growing up is hard and something that few of us would care to repeat.
Seagulls continues through November 19 at Pleasant Home, 217 Home Ave., Oak Park. Tickets are $45 (senior and student discounts available) for performances on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday. Running time is 90 minutes with no intermission.
For more information on this and other plays, see theatreinchicago.com.
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