McCullers' cross-cutting story follows four main characters: Mick Kelly (Jessica Honor Carleton), a spunky teenage tomboy who hangs with a boy but really wants to write a symphony Dr. Schleifer offers an extraordinary performance at the core of a piece that struggles to extend the heart and soul of this actor to the whole. At the bows, the actor was so overcome with the aftermath of his rush of emotion, he could barely find his way off-stage. And on Sunday afternoon, it was clear that Singer - a seemingly passive man whose own pain is actually hidden under layers of stoicism and compassion - has touched a chord with the unflinchingly honest Schleifer. He also has gained gravitas to go with his handsome looks. Schleifer, whom I have watched for years, has typically been an exuberant and optimistic presence on Chicago stages. (Young adult, as distinct from kids, is an important distinction here). There was no such debate in Chicago, where Robert Schleifer, a distinguished deaf actor with a long history of work in the Chicago theater, was the natural choice for Singer in director Hallie Gordon's new production of this adaptation for the Steppenwolf for Young Adults program.
When Rebecca Gilman's adaptation of the remarkable 1940 Carson McCullers novel, "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter," was staged at the New York Theatre Workshop in 2009, a controversy erupted over a decision to cast a hearing actor in the central role of John Singer, a deaf mute who becomes a kind of cipher, a human canvas on whom the sad and lonely residents of a Georgia mill town can paint their troubles.
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