‘LOTTERY DAY’ IS A WINNING COMBINATION!

A steamy confrontation between Mallory (J. Nicole Brooks) and her neighbor Vivien (Michele Vazquez) looms early on in Ike Holter’s “Lottery Day,” the crowning achievement in his seven-play “Rightlynd Saga.” As Mallory prepares for an epic barbeque in her backyard, she wants nothing to do with her vile neighbor. A good, stiff drink emboldens Vivien to vehemently complain that the noise will be intolerable, just before she zeros in with a personal threat. Wordless, Mallory remains stoic, her pent-up anger and frustration boiling. When Vivien realizes what she has said and whom she is talking to—Mallory controls everything and everyone in Holter’s fictitious 51st Chicago Ward—the tables turn so quickly that her head spins. The ill-advised “Pounder” she had slurped down certainly didn’t help.