Last Easter
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Wassell (seated), Chandler, Mantle, Forma
Photo by Ed Krieger
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By Joseph N. Feinstein
Watching someone you love dying slowly from a terminal illness has to be severely painful for both the afflicted and his loved ones. Doing something - anything - to curtail that person's misery preys on everyone's mind. In the very poignant Last Easter, Bryony Lavery, the Tony Award-nominated author of Frozen, attempts to offer a viable solution to this dilemma.
The play's strength is in the solid acting of Helen Wassell as June, the friend dying from terminal cancer, and her three buddies: Gash, played most humorously by Kelly Mantle, Leah, and her offerings of chicken soup, sweetly played by Yosefa Forma, and Joy, who isn't living up to her name, played a little over the top by Kirsten Chandler. Howie, Joy's boyfriend, played by Jay Skovec, comes in and out of the action, and I wished he would stay out. His moments on stage do not appear to move the story forward in the least ,and it remains a mystery why Lavery wrote him in.
Lately, bare stages appear to be the thing, as is the case here, with only the props of four metal chairs moved about as needed. By doing this, director Richard Stein has kept attention focused directly on June's problem and her friends' concerns with helping her.
Comfort comes in several packages: Leah cries for her friend, Joy keeps herself inebriated, Gash tells jokes to lighten things up which momentarily takes off some of the pressure. All look to religion and a miracle to help resolve the pain; somehow that doesn't seem to work. The friends' summation of this young woman's tragedy comes to "shit happens". Of course, that isn't enough. The final resolution of this dilemma is what the play has been building to and seems to be a catharsis for all of them.
One of the major ideas Lavery presents for consideration is that terminal illness is not the only death possible. Suicide, excessive drinking, over-eating, continual heavy smoking are all slow deaths and heavily practiced in our society.
Narelle Sissons has purposely designed a simple set, but it envelops us with its size. Tom Ruzika's lighting is excellent capturing the mood of the actors beautifully. I appreciated Mr. Stein's clever arrangements of actors, facing forward or facing away, as needed. The audience never had difficulty keeping its focus in the right place, which is also to his credit.
You will not leave quite the same as when you walked in. Isn't that what great theater is really all about?
Last Easter , at the Laguna Playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach. Tickets $20-$59 . Tues. - Thurs. @ 8:00 p.m.,
Sat. - Sun. @ 2:00 p.m.; Fri. - Sat. @ 8:00 p.m. Tel. 949-497-2787. Closes May 21.
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