REVIEW: Lively and insightful, Lyric Stage Company’s award-winning play, ‘The Wolves’ howls
Woven into the lush, green indoor turf is a unique narrative with the clever earmarks of adolescence in Sara DeLappe’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play finalist, The Wolves. Framed as a soccer match, this unconventional ensemble drama kicks off like a rocket, luring the audience into the tumultuous chattering of a competitive, all-girls soccer team who are about to learn a few valuable lessons about life and themselves in and out of the game.
Directed by A. Nora Long, Lyric Stage Company’s The Wolves continues through Sunday, February 3 at 140 Clarendon Street in Boston. The show is 90 minutes with no intermission and contains some mature themes. Click here for more information and tickets.
Photo courtesy of The Lyric Stage Company of Boston
Taking place entirely in an indoor soccer arena, Shelley Barish and Elizabeth Cahill’s exciting setting fits into the team’s boundless energy. Sports fans take note: Trained by soccer consultant Olivia Levine, The Wolves are the real deal, showing off authentic as well as physically complex moves throughout the performance.
What makes this show particularly interesting is the remarkable way the story is told. With a 90 minute running time matching the length of an average soccer match, a horn blaring not only kicks off the latest match within the performance, but sometimes humorously ties in to interrupt a heated conversation. As the audience as spectators peek into this team’s lives, the progressive nature in which they learn discipline, tolerance, and how to listen to each other is subtle, yet one of the most powerful parts of this compelling narrative.
Cast consists of Lydia Barnett-Mulligan, Sarah Elizabeth Bedard, Simone Black, Olivia Z. Cote, Chelsea Evered, Grace Experience, Julia Lennon, Valerie Terranova, and Jurielle Whitney Photo courtesy of Lyric Stage Company
These teammates have a natural and at times, rumbling chemistry in their uninhibited conversations. Whether they are delving into gossip around school, technology, getting their driver’s permits or scandalized by their maturing bodies, their viewpoints stay consistent with their level of maturity (right down to the abuse of the word, “like”) which can sometimes be insightful and other times, hilarious.
Though each cast member exhibits their own distinct personality in their matching uniforms, Valerie Terranova, who is making her debut on the Lyric Stage with this show, is a particular highlight as serious, optimistic player #25. The wise, unassuming way she leads the team shows that while the other girls may only see what is right in front of them, #25 sees where the game might take them, united, one victory at a time.
The Wolves may even serve as a nostalgic trip down memory lane, when you were a teenager and everything was the best thing in the world or the worst, the raging excitement of life. It may even leave you scratching your head, trying to recall if being a teenager girl was really like this. The undeniable answer, for the most part, was yes.
The Lyric Stage Company continues Sara DeLappe’s The Wolves through Sunday, February 3 at 140 Clarendon Street in Boston, Massachusetts. Click here for tickets and more information. Subscriptions and dinner packages are also available. Follow The Lyric Stage on Twitter and Facebook for their upcoming productions and more.