A Cities' Dessert

My wife and I saw the Actors' Playhouse production of Jon Robin Baitz' play Other Desert Cities (http://actorsplayhouse.org/mainstage.htm) Sunday afternoon--amazing. Brooke Wyeth (Erin Joy Schmidt, in a standout performance among standouts) returns home after six years, trying to prove herself not to be a one-book wonder.

She, her brother Trip (Antonio Amadeo), mother Polly (Barbara Bradshaw), father Lyman (J. Kenneth Campbell) (both rock-ribbed Palm Springs Republicans), and aunt Silda Grauman (Lourelene Snedeker)--and the specter of a missing sibling--get together for a Christmas as if by Edward Albee and David Mamet. Brooke has gotten herself out of writer's block by writing what she knew, trying to exorcise her damage (which Schmidt portrays precisely)--focusing on the center of her damage... and perhaps causing more damage in the process.

I'm not going to strive for any more of a classic review, just lay out some impressions. I was viscerally, physically, affected by this play. I had a band of tension around my midsection throughout the whole first act. So affected that at one particular moment of vulnerability--and rejection--I immediately felt physically nauseated. I had to swallow quickly once or twice, and I really thought I might throw up. And, just before the end of the first act, one character's anger, yelling and door-slamming--I felt it in my body.

For me, the second act wasn't a visceral experience, mostly. (Unfortunately?) It was very emotionally intense, however--and it tied the play up in a very satisfying way.

I've seen some amazing local theatre over the years--The Pillowman at GableStage; August, Osage County (and Urinetown) also at Actors' Playhouse; All My Sons at Palm Beach Dramaworks; Jitney (for example) at M Ensemble; The All-American Genderf*ck Cabaret and The Drawer Boy at Thinking Cap; and Infinite Abyss's Hedwig and the Angry Inch--just for example.

But never have I felt a play in my gut as I have with this one.

Other Desert Cities runs until January 10th. My South Florida friends: Go see it, if you possibly, possibly can.

(Edit 2013/02/04: I added a short paragraph about the second act.)