Review published in Chicago Reader

by Mary Shen Barnage

In "An Idle King", the first one-act on a program of three written by New Leaf company member Brandon Ray, an elderly couple consider their status as the only survivors among their circle of friends. In the second, "Faultless", a blocked jazz musician gropes in vain for the melody that will win back his wife's love and respect. And in "Faster Than A Speeding Bullet", Diana Prince and Hal Jordan (aka Wonder Woman and Green Lantern) encourage coworker Clark Kent to lighten up when it comes to off-duty romances.

Ray, who writes with uncommon maturity and compassion, never patronizes his characters in the interest of showing off his own cleverness, instead maintaining a bittersweet humor about the ironies of the human - and superhuman - condition. And though last-minute cast replacements required a few actors to work from camoflaged scripts at the performance I attended, the players' expertise under Lila M. Stromer's direction, made for personalities at once recognizable and individual.

"Faster Than A Speeding Bullet" rambles a bit, and the songwriter's spoken-song rhapsodies in "Faultless" need some fine-tuning. But the first entry in New Leaf's proposed annual local playwright series suggests it will be a fresh addition to the scene.