photos by Emily Schwartz

breaks & bikes

by Mallery Avidon Pavement Group, Chicago

set by Shaun Renfro
costumes by Melissa Torchia
lights by Janna Webber
sound/music composition by Jeff Kelley

"The scene opens in a Seattle hospital room. Drew (Joe Wiens), a handsome young musician turned law student, is in a coma after being hit by a car while on his bike. His flighty mother and several friends—most of them ex-girlfriends—gravitate to the room as people do in emergencies, their various connections with Drew bringing them into the same orbit.
Avidon’s sketches of human behavior in hospitals are sharply observed. Drew’s friends are by turns passive, possessive, dismissive and protective, hashing out their relationships with one another and reassessing the states of their own lives. Kathryn Walsh’s cast members are terrifically nuanced and compelling in these scenes, alternately prickly and empathetic as they settle in to the waiting room. Cyd Blakewell transfixes as Devin, Drew’s longtime best friend and occasional lover, while Sasha Gioppo’s conflicted ex-girlfriend Cass—Drew’s emergency contact, despite a bad breakup with him—is spikily enthralling."
-Kris Vire, Time Out Chicago