“The Ballad of Ricky Jo,” an original play set in the Wild West, premiered to an enthusiastic crowd on Friday at Shanley Pavilion. Featuring five original songs, the show was written by Medill junior Sophia Casa and directed by Communication sophomore Jeffrey Rohr.
An impressive amalgamation of an adventure story with a garnish of comedy and a musical finish, “The Ballad of Ricky Jo” walks a difficult tonal line throughout, but one that ultimately solidifies it as a truly unique viewing experience.
The play kicks into motion when Rory Collins (Communication sophomore Kyle Vetter), an established cowboy, meets Ricky Jo in a chance encounter in the wilderness and is killed by a stray bullet. This provokes the wrath of the Balladeer, a fate-like figure who sings the praises of legendary heroes throughout history. In reparation for the loss, he sends Ricky Jo on a quest to kill a legendary gunman only known as The Chimera.
Ricky Jo proceeds through a series of episodic encounters with strange characters who populate the surrounding landscape. These characters include a spurned female cowboy and love interest, a strangely friendly assassin who kills with a bowie knife, a former gunman turned priest and finally, Ricky Jo’s long-abandoned father.
Throughout his journey, Ricky Jo hears a variety of perspectives on what it means to live a meaningful life, the central theme of the play.
Particularly memorable is the philosophy of hired gun Grizzly Carver, played by Communication junior Zachary Read. He is a willfully amoral automaton of violence who impulsively flits between jobs, cracking jokes as he goes. After being shot, Carver muses on his deathbed, “I hope I got it right,” providing one of the show’s most touching moments.
The play is a fable at heart, and set on the open frontier which has been represented in Western books, TV shows and especially films over the years. The story understands it lives in the wake of its predecessors; that is, it revels in and parodies the cultural idea of the West rather than representing the gritty, brutal reality of the time period.
The cast went to lengths to replicate the classic physicality of the Western genre while lacing it with comedic exaggeration, from hobbling on stick horses to waving knives through the air to pantomiming a square dance. The show’s energy often peaked during musical segments. Uptempo songs like “Ode to a Hired Gun” brought the entire cast to the stage for a few moments of unified chorus lines.
Titular performer and Communication sophomore Ellie Kim brought a quivering kindness to a character in a world where such a trait is rare. Such personable softness is both the trait that Ricky Jo tries to overcome to become a venerable cowboy and his greatest strength as a character.
The Balladeer (Communication first-year Jacob Toole), the fourth-wall-breaking host of the show, is an ambiguous figure who embodies the spirit of the West and seems to know more than the audience does. The role was most memorable when Toole leaned into the creepy undertones of the all-seeing, mischievous figure.
Underneath its frequently comedic surface, “The Ballad of Ricky Jo” asks questions about morality, freedom and personal development, ultimately leaving the audience to judge the ethics of each character for themselves. Ricky Jo never gets to kill The Chimera, but he survives with a new appreciation for his own self-worth. As he reflects towards the end of the play, “After a while of people telling you what you’re supposed to do … you believe it.”
For anyone searching for a different kind of play, “The Ballad of Ricky Jo” delivers everything a theatre fan could want alongside some unexpected twists.
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