Elvis is nowhere in sight in “Graceland” — and there’s not much grace here, either. This comedy/drama by young Chicago playwright Ellen Fairey, now getting its New York premiere by Lincoln Center’s LCT3 offshoot, concerns the aftermath of a suicide.
The man being buried in the Chicago cemetery of the title is father to Sam (Matt McGrath) and Sara (Marin Hinkle). He’s shot himself for reasons unknown, and the siblings, who have a tense relationship, are attending to the details of his funeral.
Sarah tries to relieve her stress via a drunken one-night stand with aging lothario Joe (Brian Kerwin), only to have an awkward encounter the morning after with his teenage son, Miles (David Gelles Hurwitz).
It’s clear the teen has taken a shine to her, so when she returns the next day to retrieve her father’s pocket watch, he makes an awkward attempt at seduction, to which she isn’t entirely unreceptive.
The ensuing complications form the heart of the play, which tries to interweave wacky comedic elements into the portraits of its emotionally wounded characters.
Unfortunately, the playwright piles on too many coincidences for comfort — Miles happens to work at the cemetery; deliveryman Sam makes a stop at the father and son’s apartment — and such symbolic devices as deafening sound effects replicating the cacophony of a local air show prove more irritating than intriguing. Still, there’s genuinely heartfelt emotion in the writing. And the characters, all of whom reveal surprising depths, are drawn with a real complexity.
Under the sensitive direction of Henry Wishcamper, the ensemble does unimpeachable work, with Hinkle in particular wonderfully balancing her character’s acerbic wit and vulnerability.