The Wolves
Reviewed by Katie Buenneke
The Echo Theater Company
Extended through May 6
RECOMMENDED:
It’s both remarkable and unnerving when a writer, director, and cast work in tandem so effectively that you leave the theater feeling like you know the characters personally. It’s a rare magic, currently happening in Atwater Village, where Echo Theater Company is staging Sarah DeLappe’s The Wolves.
The play, which grapevines back and forth between drama and comedy, centers on a group of female high school juniors who play for the eponymous private soccer team. Playing together since they were kids, each of the nine young women (referred to by their numbers) is a distinct and full character: #7 (Katherine Cronyn) and #14 (Donna Zadeh) are (tenuously) best friends. #11 (Troy Leigh-Anne Johnson) is brainy, #13 (Jacqueline Besson) is a joker, and so on . . . #46 (Caitlin Zambito) is new and quite talented, despite never having played on a pre-professional team like this before — but she isn’t used to the social dynamic of the group, and sticks out like a sore thumb. #25 (Connor Kelly-Eiding) is the team captain, and de facto coach, since the actual coach is only there in spirit (the girls speculate that he might be hung over). This puts her in an uncomfortable position, both a part of the team and its chief disciplinarian. But you can’t force nine girls to get along, no matter how many motivational slogans you cheer at them. (Indeed, the play features a creative use of Nike’s slogan “Just do it!”)
Each scene takes place as the girls are warming up for a game, which means the cast is doing calisthenics throughout the play (including burpees!). It’s almost reminiscent of the acting exercise teachers use to get their students out of their heads — do the scene, but have the conversation while you’re doing the dishes! It takes the cast a little while to sink into their characters, but once they do, the show really comes to life.
Perhaps it just feels personal to me — while I didn’t play soccer, the girls’ soccer team at my high school was state champion nearly every year, and plenty of my classmates played on travel teams and private teams in the off-season. For me, it was like being jolted back in time a decade, seeing the girls I knew then portrayed on stage, superimposed in my imagination with the women they are now, which is a real gut-punch.
DeLappe’s dialogue effortlessly mimics the way girls (or at least girls from a certain socioeconomic background) talk in large and small group settings, flitting back and forth across topics both deep and shallow, while simultaneously propelling the plot forward without feeling overly expository.
Under director Alana Dietze’s staging, the show moves, but never feels rushed. The final scene is a tricky balancing act, hinging on an unanswered question, and Dietze keeps the tightwire taut, leaving the audience invested in the action onstage but awaiting and anticipating the answer to the question. Though a few performances have false moments, the production is, as a whole, quite good.
The Wolves premiered in New York in September 2016, and has been produced at numerous regional theaters, colleges, and high schools since. It’s a shame it took so long for this lupine pack to come to Los Angeles, but Echo’s production is worth the wait.
Echo Theater Company, 3269 Casita Ave., Atwater Village; Thurs., 4/25, 8 p.m.; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 4 p.m.; Mon., 8 p.m.; extended through May 6. EchoTheaterCompany.com. Running time: 90 minutes with no intermission.
