`Reckless' cloaked with eccentricity.

• Position: ENTERTAINMENT & LIFESTYLE

Byline: Paul Kolas

COLUMN: THEATER REVIEW

SOUTHBRIDGE - If you happened to see Mike Leigh's wonderful film, "Happy-Go-Lucky," the opening moments of Craig Lucas' surreal dramedy "Reckless" might very well remind you of Sally Hawkins' Poppy, a North London schoolteacher whose relentless optimism tends to irritate those around her. In "Reckless," Rachel (Joni Metras) nudges her brooding, silently seething husband Tom (John Kennedy) with the playful warning that he better watch out because her Christmas cheer "is catching."

You know something is wrong when Tom finally reacts to Rachel's gratingly sunny disposition with the regretful admission that he's hired a hit man to kill her, and pleads with her to run away before he shows up. Leaving Tom, Tom Jr. and another son behind, she does just that. From that out-of-nowhere premise, Gateway Player's quietly involving production took one to even stranger comedic and dramatic terrain on Friday night.

Despite its seeming randomness, "Reckless" has a lot to say about the perilous and unforeseen vicissitudes that life can throw at all of us, including that of a determinedly upbeat soul like Rachel.

By the end of Erin Morin's impressive directorial debut - keeping the set and props at a minimum to facilitate the numerous scene changes as smoothly and efficiently as possible - Rachel's perky smile has sagged, and her emotional exuberance replaced with a weary expression of just how the world really operates. There are highs and lows that test our mettle and forge who we become. In that sense, "Reckless" is a crafty look at the loss of innocence, one that Joni Metras thoughtfully brings to her wonderfully transitional performance. The girlish wife and mother we see at the beginning is a far cry from the pensive but much wiser woman we see at the end. Metras has done some fine work before, but she seems to have reached new heights with this role, creating a fully defined character with quirky, lovable persuasion. There's an instinctive fluidity to her acting here that feels natural, almost unrehearsed.

Whatever underlying philosophical message "Reckless" may be trying to impart, it camouflages it with sustained comic eccentricity, as Rachel encounters unusual characters and situations on her picturesque journey. The first person she meets on the snowy Christmas Eve road, after she bolts from her house in her bathrobe and slippers, is Lloyd Bophtelophti (Jeff Desautels), an odd sort...