Disclaimer: I
first saw Joe Spano with Julie Paine and others in a version of Dracula at the
Zephyr in Hollywood in the seventies. Then, much later, I shared a dressing
room with him while working on the pilot of Trapper John, M.D. The guy is a terrific actor and a
friend. That said, Spano’s
character, Marty, is the hub around which the plot of Jessica Goldberg’s world
premiere play, BETTER, turns.
Jennifer Chambers’s direction of Goldberg’s new play keeps
the action cooking with the audience’s attention drawn left and right to
represent several locations as the story unfolds. We find ourselves at once remembering the not
so distant past in small town Ohio as well as dealing with maturing siblings
and others in the present day.
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Marty (Spano) is the patriarch of his family and has supported them by
owning and operating a grocery store successfully for years. His stage four cancer has him on his
last legs as his children return home to comfort their mother, Laurie, (lovely Sigute Miller) and spend time with their failing dad.
As the daughter, Annie, Meredith Bishop, brings life to a young
woman pushing forty who is beginning to question her life’s pathway. Middle age crazy or crisis is going
around as she arrives back home reluctantly morphing from her adult self as a
mother and owner of her own restaurant in New York, to the teen she was while
growing up in small town Ohio. Annie’s
battle with her past, her present and her future is well presented as she reunites
with her high school squeeze, Frank (Malcolm Madera) who is now an older, divorced,
handsome and very “interested” contractor who is assessing issues with Marty
and Laurie’s aging house.
Goldman is not Arthur Miller, however the depths of her appreciation
for the feeling of family Miller exudes in Death of a Salesman and All My Sons
creeps in. Strong personalities
clash and clatter. We meet John,
Annie’s brother (pumped Jeremy Maxwell), a health nut with pressing issues that
may land him in jail back in California.
Maxwell’s rapid speech made some of the exposition a bit difficult to
follow, but as with all of BETTER’s characters, he imbues his disappointed
initials in the fabric of the play.
Frank’s Ex, Missy (far out Andrea Grano), inserts herself into the
situation and winds up in the sack (well, heels to the ceiling in an easy
chair!) with John!
Annie’s husband and father of their child, Cal (slick
Johnathan McClain) is a successful and very self involved self help guru who admits that he has
lost the ability to see the future.
Annie has also had serious thoughts about her life goals while being
prodded by Marty to take over the family business.
Marty’s aging and confused mother, Anya (Eve Sigall) is
slightly out of sync with the rest of the cast, none the less, the importance
of this woman also near the end of her life, brings the story full circle.
BETTER moves well with great energy that hurries the pace
now and then, but brings each character and their issues solidly together. The comparison with Arthur Miller’s
work is mostly about the relationships of the characters to one another. Eight different people with eight agendas that are all
focused on one goal. The conflicts are real.
Stephen Gifford’s beautifully executed set with subtle
lighting by R. Christopher Stokes creates the perfect atmosphere for the story
to unfold. Goldberg’s ability to bring
these three dimensional characters to life: emerging through twenty months of
workshopping by The Echo pays off.
BETTER by Jessica
Goldberg
World Premiere
The Echo Theatre Company
@ The Atwater Village Theatre
3269 Casitas Avenue
Los Angeles, CA
90039
Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays
Through November 16, 2014
Tickets and information
310 307 3753
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