Waving Goodbye, Naked Eye Theatre Company, at Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Jamie Pachino’s new work (developed with the assistance of a grant by the prestigious Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays) is a beautifully written portrait of loss, rage, change, and the terror–and joy–of trusting another person in the wake of personal cataclysm. The story moves back and forth in time as teenager Lily Blue (Liesel Matthews) grieves the death of her beloved mountain-climbing father (Brian Shaw) in a fall. Her long absent artist mother (Julia Neary) has reentered her life, reigniting a mutual smoldering resentment. Lily, a budding photographer, is also exploring her own artistic bent and dealing with the sweet if eccentric attentions of a riddle-loving young man (James McKay) and the professional and personal encouragement of a waspish but warmhearted gallery owner (a terrific Alexandra Billings).
