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Dark comedy is certainly an acquired taste for most theatergoers. While undeniably funny, many times its use of outrageous situations and extreme language can challenge an audience's sensitivities and values to such an extent it puts them off. Bruce Norris's The Pain and the Itch, which is making its world premiere at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre, is one such dark social comedy. With weighty subject matter, several shocking visual elements and frequent verbal vulgarities, it has the potential to upset many. This is clearly the playwright's goal; no one can claim this production is light matinee fare.
The Pain and the Itch is at times a powerful critical view of the comfortable upper middle-class and their dysfunctional family existence. On the surface the play's main characters, Clay and Kelly, are a typical, well-off, Midwestern couple in their late thirties or early forties. She's a lawyer and he's a temporarily unemployed homemaker for their two children. After stepping down from the role as breadwinner, Clay has taken on the responsibility of over-protecting the family from the possibly of every potential threat, worrying to the point of paranoia. Their toddler daughter, Kayla, has a mysterious genital rash which is dealt with in a delicate and natural manner in the play. However, details revealed later on add a very upsetting perspective to the little girl's condition and taint the morality of several of the play's central characters.
Show Biography - The Pain And The Itch
At a family Thanksgiving Dinner, their apparent best intentions seem to unravel. Clay and Kelly have discovered a partially-eaten avocado that suggests an intrusion into their home by some unknown, but undoubtedly (to them) menacing creature. Clay reveals his need to be seen by Kelly and the family as a competent homemaker and father, since he can't claim any competency in the business/professional world, but he struggles to keep the home alarm system under control and is keeping a secret of the ominous rash in Kayla's genital area lest he be seen as a bad father in the eyes of his family. Even the wide-screen TV fails to co-operate in Clay's scenario to maintain appearances, replaying some particularly embarrassing programming on the VCR or DVR at inopportune times.
Though we're not surprised by occasional threats from outside forces like wild animals, bacteria or viruses; or from malfunctions of the technology that's supposed to protect and entertain us, we expect better from our family. No such luck here. The guests at this Thanksgiving dinner include Clay's brother Cash (Tracy Letts in a bitingly funny performance), and their amazingly un-self-aware mother (Jayne Houdyshell). The life-long feud between Cash and Clay is beyond mere sibling rivalry, and when the brothers aren't fighting, Clay clashes with his wildly inappropriate and much-younger eastern-European immigrant girlfriend Kalina (Kate Arrington). Kalina tells us she was the victim of abuse by some soldiers in her native country, resulting in a injury that has left her unable to conceive. This memory of violence in a distant land only enhances Clay and Kelly's fear that some evil force has penetrated their seemingly secure home, and may be responsible for their daughter's infection as well as the violation of their avocados.
All of this is presented in a flashback as told to Mr. Haddad (James Vincent Meredith), a visitor with an African accent whose purpose is not made clear until very near the end of the play. As the play opens, Clay and Kelly are apparently trying to offer him comfort over the death of a loved one, but they self-centeredly keep lapsing into talk of their own issues as they recount the events of that Thanksgiving Day. This could be frustrating if not for the perfect performances and direction by Anna D. Shapiro. Shapiro's crystal-clear tone and pacing get us in to Clay and Kelly's world so completely and hilariously that we lose our curiosity over Mr. Haddad. Orth delivers a manic Clay trying desperately to maintain control (or at least appearances) and settle old scores, while the Cash of Tracy Letts keeps surprising with his shameless and wickedly funny meanness. Kate Arrington is an absolute riot as she convincingly struggles with her English and social graces. She can be nurturing with young Kayla but brutal in her attitudes toward the gypsies of Eastern Europe. Houdyshell and Mayberry are effective foils for these more dysfunctional characters.
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At a family Thanksgiving Dinner, their apparent best intentions seem to unravel. Clay and Kelly have discovered a partially-eaten avocado that suggests an intrusion into their home by some unknown, but undoubtedly (to them) menacing creature. Clay reveals his need to be seen by Kelly and the family as a competent homemaker and father, since he can't claim any competency in the business/professional world, but he struggles to keep the home alarm system under control and is keeping a secret of the ominous rash in Kayla's genital area lest he be seen as a bad father in the eyes of his family. Even the wide-screen TV fails to co-operate in Clay's scenario to maintain appearances, replaying some particularly embarrassing programming on the VCR or DVR at inopportune times. 
