By Frank C. Siraguso - Playwright David Lindsay-Abaire and director Ted Swetz take us to a parallel universe.

Kansas City, Mo. - infoZine - Naturally, I thought that the Unicorn's production of Rabbit Hole would be a comedic tour-de-force. It's written by David Lindsay-Abaire, who wrote the hilarious Fuddy Meers, and it's directed by Ted Swetz, whose comic acting and directing skills are second to none.

So it took me a while to figure out that no, Rabbit Hole is actually a very serious play that has some comic relief. In turn, this made me ponder why someone like Swetz would agree to direct it. Turns out I'm not alone in this.

Rabbit Hole is the kind of small play that we might have seen years ago at All Souls Unitarian Church. By "small" I don't mean to say that it's a lesser vehicle, it's just not sweeping in it's scope, physically or emotionally. Rabbit Hole zeroes in on a single topic and examines it from every direction.

Married couple Becca and Howie have recently lost their four-year-old son, Danny, to a traffic accident. He chased his dog into the street and was run over by Jason, a high school senior. At the play's beginning, Danny has been gone four months and Becca and Howie's grief is still fresh.

Becca, played by Cynthia Hyer, is so determined to get on with it that she's erasing all traces of Danny from their house. Photos of Danny are gone, his drawings are removed from the fridge and she's packing his clothes to give away. Hyer, whom we haven't seen on stage in a good many years, brings to Becca a driven, neurotic feeling so effective that it really starts to get on my nerves.

Howie, played by Larry Greer, is just as determined to hang on to Danny. At first, Greer seems the more reasonable of the two. That is, until we him secretly watching family videos of favorite "Danny moments."

They are so different in how they handle their grief that, as Becca says, they can't be there for each other.

Becca's wild younger sister, Izzie, played with wry intelligence by Katie Gilchrist, misses Danny, too, but she's pregnant. This complicates their already rocky relationship, but they prove to be more alike that Becca would admit.

Kathleen Warfel is Nat, Becca and Izzie's mother. Warfel plays Nat not for a matronly lush but a sad but outspoken parent who still mourns the death of her son (and Becca's brother). Izzie and Nat are the humorous counterpoint to Becca and Howie's destructive grief.

Jason, played by Joe Mayers, knows he will live his whole life remembering that he accidentally killed Danny and that nothing can change it or bring him back.

Jason's way to deal with it is to write a short story, dedicated to Danny, which he shares with Becca. The story is about "rabbit holes," pathways to other dimensions in parallel universes. In these other universes, there are other versions of ourselves living other versions of our lives. Becca is not comforted by the fact that somewhere out there a parallel Becca is leading a happier existence.

Rabbit Hole shows us that somehow, no matter how paralyzed by sadness, we have to pick up and move on. Each of us must find the wherewithal to put one foot in front of the other, take one breath at a time, and get moving. It's our only hope, our only way out of the Rabbit Hole.

In the end, I figured out, I think, why Ted Swetz would accept a project like this. Whenever I've seen Swetz on stage, as funny as he is, there is always some ironic wistfulness that you can actually hear. That's the part of Ted Swetz that directed Rabbit Hole.

Rabbit Hole
Playwright: David Lindsay-Abaire
Director: Theodore Swetz
At: Unicorn Theatre
Plays through: February 11, 2007

Related article in infoZine
Moving Drama, Rabbit Hole Leads 2007 at Unicorn Theatre