"The failure of this affair with your past Is not the last or first Your wishes in the well Go to hell." --Pacing around the Church, by Cold Cave
Alright, so I read this a day late. But, hey you guys, Hellcab! This is the first Goodreads review of Hellcab. And it takes place in Chicago, around Christmas. And I'm in Chicago-land. And it's nearly Christmas. And I just read Proof, also set in Chicago. And that made fun of the Cubs losing, as does this one. And. And. And.
So, it's a short ensemble piece, all focused on one cab driver's very long day, and all the various fares he picks up. Lawyers and crack-heads, obnoxious clowns and mistreated women. It's pretty wide-ranging as you might expect, but slowly begins to hone in on a theme of wrongs we cannot right. Things we are powerless to change, however sorry we might be for the state of affairs, however much we'd like to change them. The disgruntled cab driver is sympathetic and frequently, quietly hilarious. Some of his exchanges are pitch-perfect. The characters are all sketched quickly but still manage a kind of plausible complexity-- this seems like it'd be a really fun and challenging play to be a part of, for an actor.
Quick, too. All of fifty pages. And the 'Brief Note from the Playwright,' Will Kern writes: "Finally, what is essential to the show is the pacing, which should be breakneck." That seemed totally appropriate. Read it, if you can find it. Even better, go see it.