‘Patti & Theo’ @ Ochre House Theater
Photos by Trent Stephenson
—Jan Farrington
We lived next door to Patti and Theo in Chicago—or it feels like it. We were back-stairs neighbors, newlyweds and old-marrieds sharing the third floor of a vintage North Side apartment building.
She could crochet like a dream; he was a retired Windy City cop who answered the door in his underwear. Naked, once. Their fights were verbal but epic, their grown kids seldom showed…and both were champs at the game of push-the-hot-button. We heard it all, and saw some.
Like Matthew Posey’s strange but engaging play-with-music Patti & Theo, back by popular demand for a second round at Ochre House Theater, the neighbors’ battles were a mesmerizing sort of cinéma vérité entertainment…until we had to turn away with a shiver of embarrassment for them, and for us.
That we’re in for a surprising night of theater seems evident from the get-go. Three grizzled and nearly-comatose musicians (Matthew McNabb, Trey Pendergrass, Aaron Gonzalez) stagger awkwardly into their corner, one slumped against the brick wall. A wooden church pulpit slides jerkily toward us, pushed (at first invisibly) by a muttering medieval cleric (Lauren Massey) straight out of MP and the Holy G. Doctor Phalaenopsis pages irritably through the book on the pulpit, seeking a starting point for the story of Patti & Theo.
And it all begins so promisingly, with struggling songwriter Patti (Polly Maynard) and writer Theo (Matthew Posey) cuddled close on Dead Horse Beach, their favorite place along the ungentrified Brooklyn shore. (The action plays out somewhere between the eras of Beatniks and Hippies.) Theo loves the songs Patti writes and sings for him alone, plucking on an autoharp pulled from her bag. “Open the door / Sweet Patti o’ mine,” we find ourselves roaring, suddenly pulled into the chorus. Even the musicians wake up to play.
But already they’re asking one another: “Will things be OK…or not?” And the answer to that question is the rest of the play. Theo, Patti’s “lion” and champion, find her a singing gig at a club. (He hangs out there to work on his novel.) He’s proud of her, but increasingly angry and jealous. She seems to love him, but resents almost everything about their life (their three kids especially, though these particular rug rats must be a lot of work). The “babies” in bonnets—Quinn Coffman, Michael Stimac, Omar Padilla—are oddly disturbing, but you gotta laugh.
Janet Dodd’s imaginative shadow play energizes the storytelling, and the original songs keep us engaged and bopping a bit. (Tunes are credited to music director McNabb, with lyrics by actor/director Posey, and add-ons from Maynard and Coffman.) Patti & Theo’s relationship ebbs and flows. He has an eye for other women; she begins to see bigger, better opportunities in the world, and even starts dressing for success. (Costume designer Samantha Rodriguez Corgan does a great job with both traditional and wild outfits.)
In the end, it seems possible that neither Theo nor Patti is determined enough to get things back on track. “Is it too late to start over?” asks Patti. Who can say, honey—but how hard do you want to try? A promo line for the show is spot-on: this is a passionate love story “at arm’s length”—cool, finger-snappy, offbeat, funny, and sometimes the stuff of bad dreams: It’s a funky mix, but Patti & Theo’s dark music will linger with you for a while.
WHEN: November 2-23, 2024
WHERE: Ochre House, 825 Exposition Avenue (Fair Park), Dallas
WEB: ochrehousetheater.org
