I've never been much of a fan of "Everybody Loves Raymond", even if the specific family dynamics are so well defined. All that yelling and screaming. In my old age, I just want to leave the room. Luckily, my family isn't a bunch of screamers. Don't get me wrong; when I was 13, I knew just where to pound my foot down on the floor in our kitchen so that the whole house would vibrate with my angst and wrath, but these days we all enjoy each other's company. The family in the world premiere of Bruce Norris' THE PAIN AND THE ITCH does not. They hate each other, in fact. And, yet, they stick together. Zack North is the stay at home dad married to successful

businesswoman Mariann Mayberry. They are telling the story of a recent family gathering to James Vincent Meredith, a taxi driver, who, apparently, has some connection to this couple. Something sinister has happened. An avocado has been gnawed. A creature is loose in the house. The couple's daughter has been infected. Just what secrets lurk beneath the perfectly finished wood floors and mid-century furniture (a massive, well-thought out set by Daniel Ostling)? Along for the fun is the rest of the family, including Tracy Letts as a plastic surgeon brother, who is still hated by Orth for a supposed theft of Hot Wheels during their childhood (more hints of "Raymond"). What Norris and newest Steppenwolf ensemble member Anna Shapiro have done, however, is stage a full blown farce. The impeccably timed entrances and exits, the frantic dialogue exchanges and emotional outbursts, the constant comings and goings up and down the two flights of stairs and doorways. There's even a dead body, and while there's no mistaken identities, there is a mistaken disease. THE PAIN AND THE ITCH even ends with a wordless punch line. RUN FOR YOUR WIFE at Drury Lane Oakbrook, however, this is not. While there are many laughs, Norris has constructed a much darker farce, that attempts to strike home with most in the audience. Tackling issues of race, white guilt, and capitalism, Norris tries to reach for a greater truth. This ambitious production does not always succeed, as in the references to 9/11, ground zero, and Bush. These are more topical references than integral parts of the narrative. THE PAIN is not a great post terrorism statement, but another dissection of familial (dis)loyalties in an age (even before 9/11) when everyone is a suspect with a Jerry Springer tagline. "My parents abused me emotionally." "My cleaning lady steals my food." "My brother stole my Hot Wheels."