Playwright: Jacob Juntunen. At: Mortar Theatre Company at the Athenaeum, 2936 N. Southport. Phone: 1-800-982-2787; $20. Runs through: Sept. 26
The three acts are titled “Arrest,” “Inside” and “Outside.” Our characters are Samantha, an idealistic cub reporter at the Chicago Tribune, the daughter of well-connected Lake Forest parents. The targets of Samantha’s investigation are three residents of the Cabrini-Green projects, now under demolition (this is 2003) : Dorothy, an African-American matriarch who recalls nostalgically a time before her neighborhood became a synonym for urban decay, and her two sons—Michael, an angry teenager aspiring to the gangsta-rap lifestyle (in other words, the “bad” boy), and Abe, who works hard to support the mother of his illegitimate child (making him the “good” boy). We also have a tough-talking Latina cop and a sensitive Asian lawyer—who just happens to be Samantha’s lesbian girlfriend. And in Jacob Juntunen’s muckraking melodrama, they all do precisely what we expect of such stereotypes. For two hours and 45 minutes.
Our narrative is mostly devoted to dramatization of the issues associated with the razing of the infamous north side projects, along with perennial hand-wringing over the crime rate among young Black men and precognizant discussions of gay marriage. The documentary tone veers occasionally into science-fiction fantasy, however—deviations initiated by Michael’s incarceration in solitary confinement at Cook County jail and Samantha’s voluntary occupation of an apartment in public housing (where she gobbles her mother’s Xanax straight from the prescription bottle to ease her terror of the surrounding squalor). These bouts of hallucination introduce them to a pair of underground networks, the tunnels of the first connecting American prisons in a labyrinth of lurid nightmares, while those of the other link the various branches of law enforcement, the latter populated by crooked and/or buffoonish bureaucrats.
There’s no denying the social commitment of Juntunen and the Mortar Theatre Company—under whose auspices his play is currently enjoying its world premiere—in reaching out to citizens who apparently never read newspapers or watch television (not even “Law And Order”). Certainly, if you ascribe to the belief that “criminals,” as a group, embody remorseless evil, Under America’s revelations will probably enlighten you (or possibly reaffirm your prejudices regarding “those” people). But more sophisticated playgoers will quickly tire of Juntunen’s sensationalistic approach to his topic. The Mortars strive mightily to elevate their material to the level of legitimate agitprop, but cannot banish the impression that its author’s opinions would have been better packaged as a graphic novel.