Steadstyle Chicago
	June 2009 Theatre Review by Joe Stead
	The Hollow Lands The 8-year-old Steep Theatre is nothing if not ambitious.  Take its current Midwest Premiere of "The Hollow Lands" by Howard Korder, which weaves a sprawling epic tale over a 40 year time span on a black box storefront scale.  Director Jonathan Berry has effectively utilized the intimate but comfortable new Steep space, creating a spare yet densely populated promenade stage for this historical canvas.  There are 14 actors playing 30 different characters in a true ensemble driven drama reminiscent of "The Kentucky Cycle" and "The Grapes of Wrath".  The problem I find with Korder's 19th century tale of pioneer ambitions is that it lacks a strong focal point to anchor its often unwieldy aspirations. The nearly 3-hour play begins in 1815 in Five Points, Manhattan and segues to the Ohio River, St. Louis, the Missouri River, Rock Island, IL, the Great American Desert, The Colorado Plateau and back to St. Louis some 40 years later.  We meet a young Irish immigrant who adopts the name Jim Newman when the locals are unable to pronounce his real one.  A middle-aged grocery merchant takes Jim under his wing as an apprentice, promising him that if he works hard and learns his place he is destined for success.  It's the American Dream after all, yet how many of those dreams get stepped on or crushed under the weight of greed and progress? As Colonel Chase wonders, "What's liberty without profit?"  Jim watches his wealthy employer murdered in a robbery and takes the man's widow Mercy as his own wife.  He wins the literature loving woman's heart when he trades the boots off his own feet to buy a book for her to read.  The years pass and Jim and Mercy have built a successful dry goods mercantile business and started a family.  "I aim to progress, to be a full American," Jim pledges.  Tragedies, debts and obligations mount as Jim feels the call of the open road and the pursuit of freedom.  Mercy may feel content in "a room the size of a heart" but Jim cannot.  "I am in a state of change," he says, noting the restless spirit of the journeymen adventurer condemns him once again to begin again. As the play asks, "Where is the fault in ambition?"  Certainly not in the adventurous work of the Steep ensemble, whose only charge is that screaming and overlapping dialogue does not necessarily equate to powerful drama, only audience confusion.  That is a directorial misstep here.  Just as crucial are the complex maze of plots and subplots that get in the way of the principal storytelling.  An educated runaway slave, his conniving owner, religious zealots, savages and various drunkards, roustabouts and pioneer types all work their way into the dizzying events that unfold.  Our journeyman traveler Jim Newman feels like an onlooker much of the time, narrowly escaping the violence, bloodshed and murder that surround him.  His wife Mercy, who was stolen and permanently scarred by savages as a child, is a notable pre-feminist heroine with a strong and independent mind.  There should be more focus on their story, which tends to get lost in a bigger picture epic kind of plot.  Steep Theatre should be applauded for daring choices and real, gritty Chicago style acting.  If they can manage to harness some of that ambition to deliver a clearer and more digestible story they have the potential of creating powerful theatre.   "The Hollow Lands" plays through August 1, 2009 at Steep Theatre, located at 1115 West Berwyn in Chicago.  The play runs 2 hours 45 minutes with 2 intermissions.  Performances are Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights at 8:00 p.m.  Tickets are $18.  Call (312) 458-0722 or visit www.steeptheatre.com.   About Joe Stead Joe Stead has enjoyed a lifelong passion for the theatre, which has involved acting, directing, producing, designing and reviewing for the past twenty-five years.  He served as founder, producer and Artistic Director of Curtain Up Productions in Baltimore, Maryland and Four Star Players in Tampa, Florida.  Favorite productions have included "Life With Father," "Deathtrap," "The Odd Couple," "The Miracle Worker," "Brighton Beach Memoirs," "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown" and "Godspell".  He has also performed leading roles in "Fiddler on the Roof," "Pippin," "The Phantom of the Opera," "The Front Page," and most recently as Hucklebee in "The Fantasticks" for Waukegan Community Players.  Joe holds a degree in Commercial Art from Tampa Technical Institute.  As a critic, he has reviewed everything from Broadway to community theatre and major regional theatres throughout the United States including the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey, Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut, and the Asolo Theatre in Sarasota, Florida.  Since 1998, he has been a proud resident of Chicago, the greatest theatre city in America.  He served for two years as Theatre Editor for College News and Central Newspapers.  He created the website Steadstyle Chicago in 2000 to showcase the city's outstanding and diverse theatre scene.  Joe was proud to serve alongside a distinguished panel of theatre professionals as a judge for two seasons of Speaking Ring Theatre's "Vitality" Festival of original short plays.  His most fulfilling role, in addition to reviewer and all-around theatre fanatic, was as director of the 2007 production of Peter Shaffer's "Equus" at Actors Workshop (now Redtwist) Theatre, which was nominated for five Joseph Jefferson Award Citations and won for Best Actor (Peter Oyloe).