Polly (Kandis Chappell, left) reads her daughter Brooke’s new manuscript while (from l to r) Polly’s sister Silda (Julia Brothers), Trip (Rod Brogan), Lyman (James Sutorius), and Brooke (Kate Turnbull) look on in TheatreWorks’ Regional Premiere of OTHER DESERT CITIES by Jon Robin Baitz, playing August 21 – September 15 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts. Photo credit: Mark Kitaoka
OTHER DESERT CITIES: Comedy/drama by Jon Robin Baitz. Directed by Richard Seer. TheatreWorks at Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts 500 Castro Street, Mountain View, CA. (650) 463-1960 or www.theatreworks.org.
August 20 – September 15, 2013
OTHER DESERT CITIES a beautifully staged and acted pot-boiler at TheatreWorks.
Having spent the past 10 winters in Palm Springs there was a personal interest in seeing this play that takes place in the desert. It is understandable that it is a pot-boiler and the stuff of TV sit-coms since the author honed his skills as the creator of TV’s Brother’s and Sisters and is working on another sit-com for an upcoming season. He is also a produced playwright and screenwriter. His play A Fair Country was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 1996.
We learn early in the play the meaning of the title. As you approach the desert area from the West there is a huge sign “Palm Springs and Other Desert Cities.” Palm Springs used to be the Mecca for Hollywood and Los Angeles glitterati and relies on its past reputation to attract tourism. Now you must go to the ‘other desert cities’ such as Indian Wells to meet the type of characters with the financial means to live in the beautiful ostentatious style home created for this play (Alexander Dodge). Overheard at intermission, “The set is the play!” That comment is only partially true since the play is skillfully constructed in the Aristotelian concept with all the action taking place within 24 hours with an epilog attached to add finality to the plot.
The basic plot has been used before by, notably by A. R. Gurney in The Cocktail Hour (not to be confused with The Cocktail Party by T. S. Eliot) where a family member turns up with a soon to be produced play script that bares the foibles of his family. Gurney’s play is a true comedy with a touch of discomfiture. In Other Desert Cities comedy is at a minimum allowing the engrossing dramatic details to unfold scene by scene.
The Wyeths have gathered in the family home on Christmas Eve 2004. The patriarchs are Polly (Kandis Chappell) and Lyman (James Sutorius) with their mature children Brooke (Kate Turnbull) and Trip (Rod Brogan). Living with the Wyeths is Polly’s sister Silda Grauman (Julie Brothers) a recovering alcoholic. The elder Wyeths are affluent right wing Republicans active in the desert political life and members of an elite country club. Brooke is a liberal left-leaning successful novelist who has written a book that may be a roman a clef. It could have devastating effects on the family unearthing deeply hidden secrets that would devastate the lives of the entire family.
Author Baitz is a master at revealing layer on layer of the tangled web leading to a terrific climax. The play is produced in association with The Old Globe, San Diego where is received rave reviews. A big reason for those raves must have been the brilliant acting of Kandis Chappell who reprieves her role in the TheatreWorks production. She is ably matched by Kate Turnbull in the demanding role of Brooke and the marvelously under played performance of James Sutorius. He is completely believable when he breaks the staunch demeanor and explodes to take control . . . if only for a brief moment since it is Polly who dominates the family.
Rod Brogan has the right touch to add the few snatches of humor while being cast as brother Trip who moderates the tension boiling between Polly and Brooke. Local favorite Julia Brothers makes the most of her secondary but at one point pivotal role as Silda who refuses to be a sounding board for domineering Polly but is fully aware of her dependence on sister’s beneficence.
Director Seer, who is a mainstay at San Jose Rep, has directed both the San Diego and Mountain View productions and does a superb job keeping the characters in balance, moving them around like chess pieces leaving the outcome in question until the final brief epilog scene that takes place 10 years after the initial confrontation. Running time about 2 hours with intermission.
Kedar K. Adour, MD
Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetmagazine.com
