“Dolly West’s Kitchen”
Written by Frank McGuinness
Showing: TimeLine Theatre, 650 W. Wellington Ave., through March 22
Tickets: $25-$30
Contact: (773) 281-8463; timelinetheatre.com

By Lawrence Bommer

CFP theater editor

You’ll find the title kitchen in Frank McGuinness’ busy drama, here meticulously recreated by the equally busy Brian Sidney Bembridge, in the village of Buncrana in the county of Donegal. Inhabited by the West clan during the last world war, it’s a microcosm of Ireland, perversely seeking neutrality while Hitler attacks its enemy England (the enemy of my enemy...). McGuinness’ hothouse of rapid romance and slow remorse teems with a family afflicted with, well, excess feeling. The result: A jerky emotional rollercoaster mostly worth the ride.

It’s a drama where the characters ultimately reconcile themselves to fate. But to believe that we have to credit the obstacles, peevish spats, passionate eruptions and gratuitous bouts of whipped-up nastiness that precede it. Staging this Chicago premiere of a play that premiered in Dublin’s Abbey Theatre nine years ago, Kimberly Senior is hard pressed to bring clarity to McGuinness’ forced crises and rapid resolutions (and, too often, to make the Irish accents comprehensible).

The chief challenge facing these wartime characters is to stop hating, to find something to live more than die for. The West matriarch (played by Kathleen Ruhl as a life force who just gives up) is happy to get just drunk and horny enough to forget her lousy husband. Daughter Dolly (slyly conveyed by Kat McDonnell), who has seen Italy and raised her expectations, returns to learn her mother’s cooking and to attempt to love her British pal Alec (Cliff Chamberlain), now in the British Army. Alec is considered a traitor by Irish nationalist Justin (Niall McGinty on a hair-trigger), the West son with a secret sex life. Esther (Danica Ivancevic), the other West sister is in a much tested marriage with sadsack Ned (Mark Richard).

Entering their world is Anna (Sara Hoyer, minxing it up), a predatory servant lass who sets her cap for American soldier Jamie (Aaron Golden). Meanwhile, Jamie’s G.I. buddy Marco (Joshua Rollins) has his heart elsewhere: His scenes with Justin easily deliver the play’s most sincere love talk (except that, realistically speaking, nobody in the 1940s would be as out as these guys seem).

In short, there’s a ton of soap-operatic coming and going during these war years, not all amounting to forward action or even truth and consequences. (To his credit, McGuinness manages to channel Chekhov in the calmer, cleaner second act.) Hardly as neutral as their homeland, the characters are torn apart by the playwright as much as by each other. Still, these nine TimeLine players, hurling themselves into their characters like bunjee jumpers, are equal to the whiplash plot.