`Reckless’ offers solace on the human condition

Christmas is a lonely time of year for a lot of people, but Rachel Fitsimmons is really having a bad holiday. Her husband has taken a contract out on her life, there’s poison in her champagne and she can’t seem to shake a host of nightmarish characters out of her dreams. Or are her dreams really dreams?

This is the slippery question Craig Lucas poses in his play “Reckless,” now playing through Dec. 1 at the Penobscot Theatre. A mixture of Freudian imagery, Dickensian coincidence and Alice-in-Wonderland absurdity, the show is a racy, bittersweet fairytale of our times.

In a series of episodic scenes, we travel through the life and times of Rachel after her husband has told her about the imminent arrival of a hit man and shoves her through a window on Christmas Eve. She flees because she’s about to be knocked off, but the flight actually becomes Rachel’s rebirth, her odyssey, and the rest of the show is devoted to trying to make sense out of her past.

Rachel is a dynamic, intelligent, good-humored and kind hearted woman, but her past is the stuff therapists build careers on. Her mother was killed by a school bus. After Rachel married Tom, her father died of a heart attack. She never got the puppy she wanted. And she feels insufferable guilt over leaving her two sons. Her surreal journey touches on each of these moments (including a stopover on an Oedipal game show “Your Mother or Your Wife?”), and transports us along on a hilarious, desperate look into the human memory bank, shifting identities and hidden agendas.

Rachel’s search is ultimately about looking for life’s great unsureties: love, truth, happiness and connections. Lucas never really gives us the answers (because no one can), but he presents a play that offers some solace and laughter about the fears we all have.

In the capable hands of director Joe Turner Cantu, the show becomes an entertaining evening of bizarre and tender comedy about the hysteria of the human condition. Cantu keeps the pace fast and the characters crisp, so the show has the urgency of a twilight dream and the mood of a haunting cartoon.

The evening belongs to Janeen Teal, however. As Rachel, Teal combines crazed confusion with profound compassion and delivers a character that is solid, lovable, quirky and sympathetic. Her energy is seemingly endless, and she makes smooth transitions between scenes. But mostly, Teal has an uncommon knack for comic timing.

Outstanding performances are also given by Cori Brackett and Stephen McLaughlin, both of whom show their skill for creating a variety of characters that are believable and amusing.

Shaun Dowd, Chris Fowler and Tina Young are worth mentioning for their fine supportive roles, and Joseph Foss has a final moment that is strikingly emotional and engaging.

Scenic and lighting designer Michael Reidy has constructed a cavernous, shadowy set that enhances the hallucinatory theme and, in its simplicity, serves the quick scene changes well.

“Reckless” will be performed 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 5 and 9 p.m. Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday through Dec. 1. for tickets, call 942-3333.