Arizona Rep takes rollicking, dark ride with ‘Reckless’

Prepare to laugh, be horrified, laugh some more, and then be moved.

Lucas has a dark sense of humor. In “Reckless,” he combines a stark reality with elements of whimsy and the 2004 play delivers a punch with its comedy.

The story: It’s Christmas Eve and Rachel’s husband has informed her that he has hired a hit man to kill her so she best get out of there. Rachel is an eternal optimist who listens well. She escapes and begins a years-long odyssey that includes multiple sessions with psychiatrists, embezzlement, deaths, a turn on a quiz show and another on a talk show. She cheerily goes from one adventure to the next, sure that understanding and purpose can be found.

The heart of the play: Rachel is “on a 25-year journey to find stillness and her own courage,” says Director Hank Stratton.

“She looks to everyone to save her, when she really could do it herself all along. … She has such undeniable hope, and that’s something we can all relate to.”

Stratton’s approach: Each scene of the play brings Rachel — and the audience — on a new adventure.

“We have realistic elements playing against a fantastical world,” says Stratton. “My idea is a snow globe — we shake her world with each scene.”

His student cast: Sometimes, playing dark elements can be difficult for the young, inexperienced (on both stage and in the world) players, University of Arizona students.

“It’s very easy to get defeated by the circumstances of the play,” says Stratton. “But they are savvy.”

The play will rise or fall on its lead, and Stratton has great confidence in the actress who plays Rachel, Grace Kirkpatrick, a senior in the UA’s acting program.

“She has such a fast brain,” he says. “She has this natural eccentricity that’s so beguiling and so right for Rachel.”

And in the end: “I hope the audience will leave with a feeling of compassion for the fragility of human beings,” says Stratton.

“I also hope they laugh, and that they see themselves in it. And I hope they leave with optimism about their own insurmountable odds.”