This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Feb. 7, 2011 - If you've ever been driven to distraction -- and who hasn't? It's the American condition -- "Distraction" will provide multiple "OMG, I've so been there" moments.
Written by Lisa Loomis, who co-wrote the screenplay for the Oscar-winning film "Girl, Interrupted," the comedic "Distraction" is set in another kind of off-kilter institution: the suburban American home.
"Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace" repeats Michelle Hand's Mom character as she sits cross-legged in a futile attempt at morning meditation. But as it turns out, it's hardly a Sunday School play. Mom doesn't shy away from using the F-word. Neither does her 9-year-old son Jesse, who appears mostly off-stage.
Jesse (Garrett Ramshaw) is a wonderful, terrible, imaginative, distractible child, depending on the person you listen to, who stays in trouble at school and has few friends. As a diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is considered, you have to wonder: Who here really has ADHD? Jesse? Mom? Dad? All of us?
In frequent, hilarious fourth-wall breaks, characters tell the audience their actual, eye-rolling thoughts hidden behind their nicey-nice spoken words and forced smiles. On several occasions, a character is called upon -- by another character -- to step out of one role and into another. A different tilt of the glasses and a whiny voice transforms the holistic practitioner played by Adam Thenhaus into an allergist.
As Dad, John Reidy definitely has his moments, such as when his very dad-like bluster and bullying finally give way to sobbing. But Mom is the one to watch. Hand is a believable everymom in word and deed. And you won't want to miss her go-through-the-motions return to marital lovemaking after an hour's interruption from Jesse.
A few flubbed lines by a couple of characters are understandable, considering that the recent weather robbed the cast and crew of more than one rehearsal.
That reminds me; I need to shovel my walk. But I digress (I saw something shiny). Look, there's a chicken!
