The House Theatre Stages Comeback With ‘Rose and the Rime’

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Play Rating: 4.0/5.0

CHICAGO – While most of America’s eyes were glued to the television screens Sunday night to catch Danny Boyle’s “Slumdog Millionaire” nab its gold, the celebrated underdog of Chicago theatre companies shyly began to spout its new wings.

In its new fairytale offering, The House Theatre confounds the naysayers that arose from both its fiscal and artistic post-“Sparrow” stumbles. “Rose and the Rime” clearly demonstrates writers Chris Matthews, Jake Minton, and Nathan Allen’s ability to weave a bridge between the realms of visceral authenticity and lavish theatricality.

“Rose and the Rime” spins the familiar tale of a generic Michigan town seeped in with permafrost. Parsimonious in its forgiveness, the bleak winter serves as a baneful gift from the Rime Witch, a seductively demonized creature that bears the key (in the form of a luminous coin) to the town’s sunlit relief. The imprisoning ague leaves its citizens with little more than frostbitten depression, torpid activity, and potbelly barbecues.

As is the case with most of these Grimm-inspired morality tales, it is up to the steadfast wits and courage of a gutsy young heroine to defeat the foe. In venerable House fashion, however, the allurement of myth’s wonder quickly gives way to humankind’s propensity for its own destruction.

Carolyn Defrin (Rose) in The House Theatre’s ‘Rose and the Rime’.
Photo credit: Michael Brosilow

Nathan Allen’s fertile direction masterfully pairs with Collette Pollard’s visionary design to catapult their spectators into the fictional town of Radio Falls. Most of what works for this latest composition is its searing visuals. Pollard blankets the musky Chopin Theatre space in a rattled snowglobe effusing with granular confetti and sheets of looming white.

Make no mistake about it: aesthetic prowess is crowned king in this latest House installment. The craftsmanship alone would provide more than reason enough to celebrate this piece if the pertinent narrative of “Rose and the Rime” were not asked to concede fealty to it.

Carolyn Defrin as Rose in The House Theatre’s ‘Rose and the Rime’.
Photo credit: Michael Brosilow

Allen understands that the timeless wonder of childhood yarn can still be used as an elixir to access the adult imagination. He has created a theatrical assortment with Brechtian staging, ethereal movements, and precise visual stills. Indeed, Allen is an auteur with the ability to engage each of the human senses through dialectal theatre.

In some of the most captivating scenes, Allen enables his audience to feel the wet breathing of a forest, the crackle of a cave’s wind, and the gelidity of a blizzard’s droplets. Hot dogs and beach balls are even thrown out to assist attendees in their quest for narrative connection. And if you’re really lucky, one of Rose’s friends might just offer you some extra mustard.

The baptismal splash of any House production is its willing venture into the compass of Broadway. Tommy Rapley’s choreography instructs “Rose and the Rime’s” very able ensemble to replicate gushing set changes and chorus lines with little more than the confluence of a converging group bodice and some throwaway prop pieces.

Carolyn Defrin (Rose) with ensemble in ‘Rose and the Rime’.
Photo credit: Michael Brosilow

However, as is the case with the Rime Witch’s double-edged coin, what Allen gifts us in aesthetics he retracts in drama. What we wind up receiving is a light frosting of a narrative, a skeleton of a literary curve rather than a fully fleshed fable. The script proffers very little in the way of dialogue, instead favoring a cistern of caricature schtick from ensemble actors.

Consequently, there is very little humanity to be found in these individuals, an ingredient that allows fairytales to permit the suspension of disbelief in their readers. Gluttonous spectacle only works in theatre when it acutely supplements the meat of the drama, yet “Rose and the Rime” tends to employ its narrative to heighten its visual cues.

Carolyn Defrin has undeniably staked her claim as one of Chicago’s most affecting rising stars, and yet she is given minimal verbal discourse with which to work as the archetypal heroine. A most cerebral actor and noticeably adept at sculpting a range of emotional landscapes for any character, Defrin is forced to scrape through a three-minute introductory exposition. It is this misuse of core talent and void in human condition that primarily threaten this production and its theatre company.

Carolyn Defrin as Rose in The House Theatre’s ‘Rose and the Rime’.
Photo credit: Michael Brosilow

RELATED READING More theater reviews from critic Alissa Norby. More theater reviews from our other critics.

But this is still one worth seeing. The House remains an integral company member of the Chicago theatre family and it has a great deal of ingenuity to give. “Rose and the Rime” may not be its best offering, but it has more than enough magic to warm up to.

For a complete listing of all shows and reviews in Chicago, visit our partner TheatreInChicago.com. For half-price Chicago theater tickets, visit our partner Goldstar.

By ALISSA NORBY Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com alissa@hollywoodchicago.com