REVIEW

There is no wonderland in Rabbit Hole, but there is plenty of wondering in Curious Theatre Company's wrenching drama. Wondering about how much grief a person can withstand, wondering about how anyone survives anything, wondering - and this is the most horrifying - how we would survive under the same circumstances.

In his Pulitzer-winning play, David Lindsay-Abaire sets up a story that's prosaic and yet still shocking: A 4-year-old boy, with all the comforts a wealthy suburban family can provide, runs after his dog into the street and is hit by a car. He dies. Eight months later, his parents are reeling in markedly different directions.

Becca was already strait-laced before the accident, but now, as played by Rebecca Fowler, she seems to have wrapped herself even tighter, terrified that if one feeling escapes they all will. The play opens as she efficiently folds a basket of laundry, one that turns out to be her son's clothes. She's infuriated by platitudes and by any attempt at comfort, whether in her husband's romantic overtures or in the vibrancy of her mother and sister.

That leaves the more open Howie to find his way on his own. Erik Sandvold creates a man who's more open to grief and is left alone to soothe himself with video of his son. But in moments, a ferocity bursts out of Sandvold; at one point, it seems he might actually hit his wife.

Into a far too quiet home come occasional flashes of light. Kathryn Gray plays Becca's garrulous, quirky but surprisingly substantial mother. We first hear of her in her daughters' complaints, but most daughters complain about their mothers. There's far more to the woman than what her daughters see or hear. It is she, for example, who points out the reason for hanging on to grief: "It's what you have instead of your son."

Becca's sister, Izzy, has the independence and irresponsibility of a youngest child. Jessica Robblee offers a burst of energy to the scene, a young woman who won't apologize for her existence and is as present in her life as her sister is absent from her own.

There's a fifth character, a teenage boy, played with the sensitivity and awkwardness that Sean Mellott has brought to similar roles of late.

All this is exquisitely staged by Christy Montour-Larson, who understands that the silence is as important to this play as the words. In a play where you can barely breathe, she leaves room to do so. At one crucial point, the only sound heard is a stirring spoon; it becomes deafening. Wind chimes take on the sound of a wail. At the same time, Michael R. Duran's set puts the boy's room on the second floor, an empty vessel overshadowing the entire family.

For anyone who has experienced grief, Rabbit Hole is a painful experience. Ultimately, though, it is the way of theater that even in agony, we can find relief by sharing it with others.

Rabbit Hole

* Grade: A

* When and where: 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays, through Feb. 14 at Curious Theatre Company, 1080 Acoma St.

* Cost: $17 to $34

* Information: 303-623-0524