UP July 21, 2009

Steppenwolf presents 'UP' by Bridget Carpenter, directed by ensemble member Anna D. Shapiro. Sixteen years earlier, Walter Griffin defied gravity and common sense by attaching 42 weather balloons to a lawn chair and soaring into the wild blue yonder. He's been earthbound ever since but has never forgotten his lofty feat in the sky, to the despair of his wife, Helen, the sole support of him and their teenaged son, Mikey. Now with the family in financial and emotional crisis, Walter does the unthinkable. He finds a job. So does Mikey. It's all good for a while, until what goes up must come, well, down. In this wry, heartfelt new play, we discover that dreams can make us blind to what's going on right under our noses.