Jack's Precious Moment

I saw Jack's Precious Moment last night. It's around for one more night at Chemically Imbalanced Theater on Irving Park Road. I wish I had noticed this sooner because I highly recommend it.

The performing company is called Will Act for Food because they collect imperishable food and money and donate it too the Lakeview Pantry. We brought a can of three bean salad and some canned asparagus, so they will act for bad food too.

The play, however, was not at all bad. It's about how false symbols and religion with a right wing agenda are failing middle Americans.

Jack is murdered by terrorists in Iraq. There's a gruesome video of the whole thing on YouTube. Bib, Jack's twin brother, knew Jack was no hero, and perhaps a murderer in his own right. Their mother had an odd fall down a long staircase leaving a smirking Jack at the top. Bib tried to tell their dad, Jim, about the incident, but Jim would not do anything about his favorite son's behavior.

Karen, Jack's now penniless, abused widow, became born again, as Jim required before the wedding. Born again by being baptized in a kid's pool, she embraced Jesus, or at least cheap kitsch that made her feel she had embraced Jesus, and kicked her model airplane glue habit. She also tried to make a family for herself, even if it meant she had to cook all the time for the ungrateful men in her life, and endure beatings from her husband, sporting the bruises her father-in-law pretended were not there.

Jim hasn't worked for years, and has relied on his not-so-favorite son Bib, a male nurse, for support (although he taunts Bib for his effort) and on Pastor Andy for spiritual and political guidance.

Bib makes a scene at the first memorial service. He's not sure the terrorists had it wrong in killing Jack. Jack was not a hero, or even a fallen soldier despite the refrigerator box with an American flag draped over it in the living room. Jack was a mean, ornery, wife-abusing, mother-killing cell tower contractor.

Pastor Andy doesn't want the terrorists to win, so he was very clear that he did not like Bib's speech at the memorial service. He threatened to kick Bib, and the rest of the family, out of the church for good. Jim is mad that Bib caused him problems in church, and Karen is busy trying to portray the godly woman she feels she's supposed to be, and hide her penchant for using curse words. No attention is paid to Bib's loss or mental health.

Nervous from hanging around Bib's house, that she, Jack and Bib also shared with Jim. Karen decides to focus her shaky grief on Precious Moments figurines. If you're not familiar with them, Precious Moments are those cherub-like, Aryan-looking, cheap statuettes that have an odd religious backstory. The founder models them after people, mostly children, who died is odd and tragic ways and appeals to Christian faith as his marketing plan. Now, the company runs a Christian theme park with a chapel. Of course, there's a connected 501(c)(3) organization. This is a real company and not just a story device.

Deciding that Jack's story is worthy of a Precious Moment figurine, Karen brings the family to the Precious Moments theme park in an attempt to have a meeting with the company's founder, Samuel Butcher. Bib cannot bring himself to go inside the chapel and waits in the parking lot where he meets Chuck, a free-spirited carni who runs a deadly ride called the Octopus. While the two young people are busy, dad Jim finds that he's being haunted by a giant-sized Precious Moments Angel. He tries to get Pastor Andy on the phone, he's in crisis over that YouTube video of Jack's murder. Pastor Andy eventually answers his phone to warn Jim not to watch the video or the terrorists win. Read a psalm and call me in the morning.

Eventually, each character finds their disappointment and their salvation in places different than they would have expected.

It's a good play and if you find yourself with a couple of hours free tonight, pack up the canned three bean salad and make your way over to W. Irving Park Road. Jack's Precious Moment gets 3 and one-half cat treats.