Theater Review
In a small town in Indiana, gossip doesn’t have to travel far. Just a few steps off the porch, and news has reached the neighbors before the screen door bangs shut. And when the neighbors are family, and everyone’s business is everyone else’s business, word travels even faster, and penetrates deeper. Such is the case in the Santa Monica Theatre Guild production of Paul Osborn’s comedy “Morning’s at Seven,” playing at the Morgan-Wixson Theatre in Santa Monica through November 26. The play debuted on Broadway in 1939, and music of the 1920s and 30s’songs like “I Wanna Be Loved by You” (Marilyn Monroe in “Some like It Hot”)’sets the mood in this production, directed by Jennifer Harvey and co-produced by Palisadian Chana Messer and Lewis Stout. The story of a house divided’sisters growing apart and back together, and the ramifications on their seemingly dysfunctional family’is not new, but in “Morning’s at Seven” some well crafted, quirky characters make the show highly entertaining. Set in 1938, the play centers on the tightly knit lives of four sisters who have lived in close vicinity’in the same house, next door to each other, or just down the street’for decades. These senior citizens are, at times, childishly jealous, and know exactly how to push each other’s buttons. They harbor resentments and emotional anxieties, but they are also extremely protective of each other’s secrets and feelings, and deeply devoted in their sisterhood. When the show begins, they are anticipating the arrival of sister Ida’s son Homer (Michael Blackman), who is bringing his fianc’ Myrtle (Andrea Leblanc) to meet the family for the first time. They have been engaged for seven years and dated for some five years before that, but these 35-year-olds act shy and awkward around each other like a new, much younger couple. A mama’s boy, Homer has delayed proposing to Myrtle because he is too comfortable living at home and reluctant to take the next step into manhood, even though his father, Carl (Wayne Baldwin), has offered him a furnished home nearby. Blackman is comical and charming in his boyishness, sitting on the floor and then standing with his chest puffed out, his emotions written all over his face and erupting constantly. As Myrtle, Leblanc is delightfully intriguing and bizarre. Wide-eyed, and slightly hunched over, feet turned in, she successfully captures Myrtle’s private and timid but curious personality. Like Homer, Myrtle is caught between childhood and adulthood. “I guess what a woman really wants is a home of her own,” she says, echoing one of the play’s themes that place defines one’s identity. Another sister, Cora (Mary Ann Link), also wants her own space. She lives next door to Ida and Carl with her husband, Thor (Jack Winnick), and unmarried sister, Arry (Lareen Faye). Jealous tension between the mild Cora and wild Arry explodes when Cora comes up with a plan to change their living situation. Arry, who is insecure about her identity, says, “Marriage gives women dignity.” Cora argues they she feels just as lonely in her marriage. “You can be alone in a lot of different ways,” she tells her sister. And it’s true’most of the characters in this play seem to feel alone despite the fact that they aren’t lacking a shoulder to cry on. This underlying sadness humanizes the characters and allows for some moving, emotional scenes within the comedy. One of these moments is the brief but compassionate scene between the oldest sister Esti (Lois Bostwick) and her domineering, insensitive husband, David (Laurence Braude), who tries to prohibit Esti from interacting with her uneducated family whom he considers “morons.” The chemistry between actors Bostwick and Braude is clear; they create two vulnerable characters struggling in their marriage’a husband whose sharp and mocking comments drive his loving wife away until she decides to play his game and regain the respect she deserves. “I have a good time with my sisters. I don’t care how ignorant they are,” says Esti, the smartest and most likable sister. She is also the only one who seems to be able to pull Carl out of his “spells,” when he is overcome by a sense of failure at not having become a dentist or, as he puts it, having taken the wrong turn at the fork in the road and gotten terribly lost. Ultimately, although the female characters blame themselves too often for family problems (reflective of the 1930s male-dominated culture), they are much stronger and more intelligent in their scheming than the men. The male characters are often oblivious to the planning, talking and decisions being made behind their backs. Actor Winnick comically plays the most rational of the male characters, the bold but lovable Thor who is often caught in the middle between his wife and sister-in-law. And can these actresses scream and run! Some of the small-town Midwestern humor is forced, but the production successfully captures the back-porch culture and mood of the era, with soft lighting by Dan Weingarten and costumes by Suzanne Scott. Set design is by Nadia Morgan and sound design by Badger Coon. Performances run Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets are $18; $15 for seniors and students. Contact: 828-7519.
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