Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Academy Reviews
Photo: Mikki Schaffner Photograph
John Plumpis equally Fr. Lovett in Incident at Our Lady of Perpetual Help at the Playhouse in the Park
The 1970s are a half-century agone but can be remembered fondly and humorously every bit evidenced past the product of Incident at Our Lady of Perpetual Help at the Playhouse in the Park.
Playwright Katie Forgette's situational one-act reaches dorsum into the lives of an Irish-Catholic family unit in what the program calls "a urban center very much like Cincinnati." Permit's make that West Side Cincinnati, where traditional conservative values from 1973 — the year this story takes place — likely haven't faded all that much.
It's a memory play, presented particularly from the perspective of then nineteen-twelvemonth-old Linda O'Shea (Elise Rucker), who narrates the action, oft stepping aside from events to speak direct to the audience. Playwright Forgette employs this device throughout the play, not just with Linda's narration, but with her very liberal Aunt Theresa "Terri" O'Shea (Barbara Chisholm, familiar to Playhouse audiences for past appearances in Erma Bombeck: At Wit'due south End and Misery). Aunt Terri is ready, willing and eager to stride forward with her own version of the story.
The O'Sheas are faithful members of a Roman Catholic parish, and all the events happen in the living room of Linda'southward parents' house, designed in period detail by Jo Winiarski. Information technology'south furnished with chairs and a footstool with matching plaid upholstery, a couch with a crocheted afghan and a television in a wooden console. A small upstage kitchen has a vintage wall telephone, and the flying of steps to the upstairs bedrooms is festooned with framed family photos. Xavier Pierce's lighting design puts Linda in pools of effulgence for her asides to the audience, concealment the rest of the scene as the other actors momentarily freeze.
Linda's long-suffering, rarely complaining, hardworking mom is Josephine "Jo" O'Shea (Erin Noel Grennan); her irascible dad, Mike O'Shea (John Plumpis), is clearly the man of the house. Rounding out the household is Linda's kid sister, Becky (Elli Maddock). Upstairs, heard but never seen, is Mike's demanding female parent, full of shouted complaints and demands.
Photo: Mikki Schaffner Photography
Elise Rucker equally Linda in Our Lady of Perpetual Aid at the Playhouse in the Park
Linda reflects on an "incident" she sparked in 1973, a serial of falling dominoes that kept multiplying from a simple if awkward chat between her and her sister about female puberty, which is accidentally overheard past their overbearing priest, Father Lovett (likewise played by Plumpis). Information technology's a moment that could take threatened the family unit'south upstanding reputation in the conservative parish. As Linda says, this is a story familiar to anyone who has experienced "Cosmic guilt — besides known as Jewish guilt, Methodist guilt, Baptist guilt, Lutheran guilt and atheist guilt."
Linda has been hoping to go out boondocks for a artistic writing plan at Stanford. Her mother has been plunking abroad at a romance novel she's been writing in fits and starts while raising her family unit. Terri, furious over her husband's thoughtless, domineering means, has her own perceptions of how things should unfold. Becky, naïve but spunky, is a fan of classic movies and imagines herself as a junior version of private eye Philip Marlowe, who cracked cases in films in the 1930s and '40s.
When Jo asks Linda to fill Becky in on the facts of life, the story's fuse is ignited, full of laughable twists and turns. Simply of grade, it resolves happily. In add-on to Linda's fitful and mayhap not entirely accurate recollection, we hear wry observations about the family's own memories of the events. Terri, for instance, wants to smoke (because in 1973 anybody smoked), merely Linda reminds her that audiences in 2022 will object to cigarette fume in the theater. Speaking to the audience evokes frequent sympathetic responses and build momentum.
In add-on to playing officious Fr. Lovett, Plumpis is called upon to portray Betty Heckenbach in drag, the gossipy parish busybody who zealously seeks nosy details about what'southward troubling the priest. Terri calls her "a 1-woman swarm of locusts." There'due south no real endeavour to muffle that it'due south Plumpis in these two added roles. Seen from the point of view of Linda's memory, Fr. Lovett looks similar her dad — making the blurred connexion all the more entertaining.
I suspect many Cincinnati theatergoers will enjoy Incident at Our Lady of Perpetual Assistance, reflecting every bit it does values still prevailing in many local homes. The Playhouse advises that the bear witness is intended for audiences ages 16 and up, cheers to some colorful and rather exaggerated conversations about puberty and conception.
Producing Artistic Director Blake Robison has staged the evidence with a cast of fine actors. Young extra Maddock (who is a freshman at Ursuline University) holds her own amid these professional actors, bringing some believable adolescent amuse to her performance. Chisholm'due south salty Terri offers a nice balance to her devout, emotional but loving sis; played past Grennan, Jo is a character many will recognize. All three of Plumpis's roles are conceived every bit caricatures, but he gives them lots of comic turns and warms upwards as a father in the last scene. Rucker's Linda is the most challenging part, hopping in and out of the action; she's convincing as the 1973 version of herself, only Forgette's writing of Linda's adult observations sometimes seem forced.
The playwright uses too many of the back-and-forth moments between then and now. The direct addresses to the audience start to feel a tad forced, and the story's contrived ending has a serious whiff of TV sitcom to it. Not that there aren't a lot of laughs forth the way too as some truly heartfelt moments. Simply a more natural unfolding of the story might accept felt less manipulative.
The prove's opening was delayed by a COVID-nineteen outbreak in the cast. They've all recovered and are back onstage, just the run will be somewhat shorter than usual.
Incident at Our Lady of Perpetual Assist , presented by the Playhouse in the Park on the Marx Mainstage, continues through February. 27. Tickets and more info: cincyplay.com.
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Source: https://www.citybeat.com/arts/review-incident-at-our-lady-of-perpetual-help-at-the-playhouse-is-a-comic-irish-catholic-tale-set-in-the-1970s-12641342
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