The Crowd You’re In With

written by Rebecca Gilman
directed by Amy Rummenie

November 5 – 20, 2010

People’s Center Theatre

When Melinda and Jasper invite a few friends over for the Fourth of July, things heat up quickly. As their glowingly expectant friends spar with their decidedly childless landlords, Melinda and Jasper try to conceive their own answer. Rebecca Gilman (author of Spinning Into Butter and Boy Gets Girl) explores the mysteries of life-changing decisions, biological imperative, free will, and sangria.

Reviews

“Crowd” is see-worthy. Director Rummenie and her cast manifest the anxieties that arise when children come into the imagination, or picture — schools, lifestyle choices, the end of the world.

– Rohan Preston, Star Tribune

As a married woman in her 30s who has yet to have a child, I sometimes feel as if my crowd is shrinking as members “leave” to have kids. Of course, I’m not supposed to feel this way. It’s not a competition and it’s not a race. Right? So I could perhaps be considered the ideal audience member for The Crowd You’re In With, the current production by Walking Shadow Theatre Company. In fact, if you’re on the fence about having kids, going to see this production could be therapeutic—the characters take turns voicing the various questions and concerns that might run through anyone’s head as they try to make this major life decision…

I have never been disappointed by a Walking Shadow production. The company continues to select work that engages, challenges and entertains its audience and The Crowd You’re In With is no exception. The writing, by playwright Rebecca Gilman, is both funny and intense—the kinds of things you may wish you could say or ask if you weren’t so gosh-darned Midwestern. The production is wonderfully cast, with stand-out performances by Adam Whisner as Jasper, a young man struggling to understand what he wants out of life, and Bethany Ford as Windsong, a young woman with many aspirations but little foundation. And the intimate stage setting (a backyard barbecue in Chicago on the Fourth of July) makes one feel as if one could get up, grab some chips and join in the debate.

Instead of watching something trite this weekend, like Due Date or reruns of King of Queens, go to The Crowd You’re In With and engage. There are no right or wrong answers, but in the end, you may find yourself refreshed by that all-too-uncommon honesty.

– Rebecca Collins, TC Daily Planet

Truly an ensemble piece, the characters share much (politics, education, interests) but are uniquely individual personalities guided by different inner compasses. The mini-conflicts and their resolutions play off of these similarities and differences creating a bumpy but navigable landscape. With only tiny timing glitches, fine performances were turned in by all, but Whisner’s performance as Melinda’s conflicted husband was as compelling as any I’ve seen this year. I wasn’t watching acting; I was witnessing first-hand the unfolding of his inner turmoil.

The beauty of this play is that it is so much like real life – and maddeningly so. The awkward pauses, the careless and hurtful remarks, the offhand one-up-manship that often accompanies a small party are familiar and provocative. What do they mean? In this play, they have as much weight inside the heads of each audience member as they do with the characters on the stage.

We cannot help but picture ourselves participating in this dialogue, rendered with so much restraint and subtlety. It won’t make you squirm and it won’t solve anything for you, but it will make you think, and empathize in some way with each viewpoint. This production is a breath of fresh air drifting across the Twin Cities acting landscape. Director Amy Rummenie is to be commended for containing those nasty gusts.

– Janet Preus, HowWasTheShow