Alchemist Theatre stages a fresh, new psychological thriller by Aaron Kopec. After a slow and unappealing start, Suicide Sleep becomes a delirious, existential funhouse of a story. As the play opens, Rick just wants to get some sleep. Joshua Devitt does a good job of making Rick seem convincingly exhausted. In walks Tim Palacek as the annoying guy next door, Jimmy. Palacek does a good job of being convincingly annoying. At this stage, the play doesn’t seem like it’s going to build into anything even marginally interesting.
Things pick-up when Liz Whitford enters as Lynn, Rick’s love interest concerned about his move into the back room of a bar. Whitford is sweet, caring and not the least bit cloying. Over the course of the drama, darkness deliciously seeps in around the sweetness, by which time we have met Sammich Dittloff in the role of Sarah, Lynn’s crazy, amorous, estranged sister. The play gets weird and existential from there. We begin to question who is really who, what everyone really wants and just what exactly isgoing on.
Dittloff is irresistibly charming as a hopelessly imbalanced train wreck who seems completely at peace with how completely chaotic and nebulous everything is. Palacek’s performance finds direction in Dittloff’s crazy momentum and the whole thing becomes intoxicatingly entertaining. At only one hour in length, Kopec’s script leaves plenty of time for theatergoers to have a drink at the bar, decompress after the show and discuss just what the heck it was that just happened onstage.
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Through Oct. 30 at Alchemist Theatre, 2569 S. Kinnickinnic Ave. For ticket reservations, click here.
