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By BOB NOCEK; Times Leader Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 09, 1997 Page: 2C
PHILADELPHIA — In the section of North Philadelphia known as “The
Badlands,” hope is hard to come by.
Drugs, guns and death are easier to find.
In “Third and Indiana,” the play based on the book by former Philadelphia
Inquirer columnist Steve Lopez, the Arden Theatre Company manages to find both
the good and the bad in the people who live there.
It does so in a forceful way, with violence and language and stark reality.
And that’s what makes this world premiere production so strong. There may be
hope, but there’s plenty of menace, too.
The play, directed and adapted by Aaron Posner, follows closely the book by
Lopez, who wrote about Philadelphia’s dark side for 12 years before leaving to
become a columnist/writer-at-large for Time Inc. earlier this year.
It opened in March and runs through May 4 at the Arcadia Stage in
Philadelphia.
“Third and Indiana” is the story of Gabriel, a runaway teen, torn between
his artistic desires and his seemingly irrevocable membership in a
drug-dealing gang. As his mother, Ofelia, searches into the night through the
city’s worst neighborhoods, Gabriel winds up staying with Eddie Passarelli, a
middle-aged jazz guitarist who left his wife and children to live with a
girlfriend.
The foolishness of Passarelli’s troubles, which also involve the mob, are a
welcome break from the coarse street corner turmoil in which Gabriel is
involved.
The task of making Gabriel sympathetic is handled dutifully by Gueshill
Gilman Wharwood, a senior at the Creative and Performing Arts High School in
Philadelphia. His Gabriel draws and paints with promise of a life beyond the
streets. But, like so many young men in his neighborhood, he can’t imagine
breaking out of the cycle of drugs and death.
“Third and Indiana” is both disturbing and darkly comic, and Posner’s
direction makes optimum use of both sides, as he often stages two scenes
simultaneously, alternating the action between them.
It may be oversimplistic to consider the world of “Third and Indiana” one
of good vs. evil, particularly when Gabriel is living with one foot on each
side. But these are characters trying to hold on to hope in the face of a
bleak alternative.
What makes “Third and Indiana” work is that it’s not afraid to show us that
sometimes hope isn’t enough.
“Third and Indiana” runs through May 4 at the Arden Theatre Company’s
Arcadia Stage, 40 N. 2nd St., Philadelphia. For additional information, call
215-922-8900.
