Ross Zentner
The faculty lounge (from left): Nicholas Harazin, Marques Causey, Daniel Torres-Rangel, Lachrisa Grandberry, Rana Roman and Jim Buske.
A delighted first-night audience greeted Exit Strategy, the latest from Forward Theater Company, with a near-instant standing ovation Friday evening. The comedic social commentary follows staff and students as their struggling Chicago high school nears closure at the end of the school year.
The play is as much a character study of the school’s boyish vice principal, performed wonderfully by Nicholas Harazin, a veteran of American Players Theatre. Stuttering and passionate, he overcomes his initial listlessness to stage an unlikely community movement, paying a hidden price as he uses his 3,000 students as soldiers.
Ike Holter’s 2014 script remains current, as Chicago faces new rounds of school closings. Its story depends completely on the shoulders of the vice principal, and Harazin offers a delicious portrayal. His character is aided by a self-appointed senior year student leader, played by Marques Causey with dynamic energy and perfect comic timing.
The playwright weaves multiple teachers’ story arcs throughout the short play, which is presented without intermission. There is sassy Sadie, a funny and plain-spoken anchor of good sense, portrayed with great wit by Lachrisa Grandberry. Jim Buske is the elder instructor who’s seen it all, too consumed by personal mourning to mourn for his school. American Players mainstay Sarah Day is a sort of Hamlet’s ghost, Daniel Torres-Rangel is Hazarin’s confidante and semi-secret boyfriend, and Rána Roman is called upon to refresh the tradition of feisty Latina spitfire.
A kind of prologue is set in the vice principal’s office, which otherwise remains unused during the play. A great deal of off-stage action is suggested, and the rest is set in the school’s drab teachers lounge, overlooked by an image of the school mascot, leering from a hallway.
It’s safe to say that the ensemble cast brings polish and even depth to Holter’s script, which the Boston Globe characterized as “ambitious and impassioned but disjointed drama.” Still, the winning performances combine to boost Forward’s production of Exit Strategy, at the Overture Center's Playhouse through Feb. 4, into an instant audience favorite.
