'Four Places' East Coast Premiere at Merrimack Rep

Four Places

Written by Joel Drake Johnson, Directed by Charles Towers, Scenery Designed by Bill Clarke, Costumes Designed by Deborah Newhall, Lighting Designed by Jeff Adelberg; Stage Manager, Emily F. McMullen; Assistant Stage Manager, Peter Crewe

CAST: Laura Latreille, Barb; Carole Monferdini, Peggy; Kate Udall, Ellen; John Wojda, Warren

Performances through November 7 at Merrimack Repertory Theatre, 50 East Merrimack Street, Lowell, MA; Box Office 978-654-4MRT (4678) or www.merrimackrep.org

Four Places at the Merrimack Repertory Theatre is a compact little serio-comic character study that serves up an all-too familiar slice of life. When I use the modifier "all-too familiar," I don't mean it in a pejorative sense of having seen this story too many times before; rather, that many of us have been in the shoes of these characters and recognize what's going on here. Playwright Joel Drake Johnson has a great ear for dialogue, putting realistic words into the mouths of an aging mother and her two middle-age children when they get together for lunch one day. Coupled with the attentive direction of Artistic Director Charles Towers and the animated facial expressions of the cast, it soon becomes evident that this will be no ordinary midday repast.

MRT presents the East Coast premiere of this four-hander that displays what happens when the best of intentions meet family dynamics in a very public venue and all hell breaks loose before the soup is served. Siblings Ellen (Kate Udall), a psychologist, and Warren (John Wojda), a teacher, arrive in Ellen's car to take their septuagenarian mother Peggy (Carole Monferdini) to her favorite restaurant.  Normally reserved as a weekly outing for mother and daughter, Peggy is suspicious of Warren's presence for lunch, but he lies (badly) about a school holiday. At this point, we all know that something is up, but the playwright lets the suspense build through the car scene, the restaurant waiting area scene, and well into the scene at the table before he tips his hand.

Risking being the cause of indigestion, the children relentlessly interrogate their mother about goings-on between Mom and Dad that have been reported to them by her housekeeper. When the hammering gets to be too much, Peggy escapes to the sanctuary of the ladies room, accompanied by Ellen. Mom hopes to divide and conquer, or to find out what this is all about in a more private setting, but Ellen doesn't want to break up the bad cop - bad cop routine. The perky waitress Barb (Laura Latreille), who refers to Peggy as her "favorite customer" and happens to be the daughter of Dad's former secretary who was in love with him, hovers about, giving a hint of knowing things that maybe she ought not to know. Barb is cloying and over-protective, acting as Mom's ally while also serving to ratchet up the palpable discomfort level for the kids.

Udall and Wojda work well together to realistically portray the bond between a brother and sister who may not have much else in common besides their genes and have grudgingly agreed to carry out this difficult assignment. She captures Ellen's Zen-like detachment and he alternates between being clueless and bratty, perhaps in need of anger management classes. Latreille's interloper plays both sides of the coin with equal aplomb, as Mom's caring protector and the thorn in the sides of Ellen and Warren. The really heavy lifting is done by Monferdini who runs the gamut from monstrous to sympathetic, from Mommy Dearest to everyday mother doing the best she can. Although she delivers her lines authentically, it is her pursed lips or trembling chin that convey the anger and anxiety that Peggy experiences as a result of this stressful outing. Monferdini plots the course from place to place to place to place and the others follow her strong lead.

When Four Places stays focused on the issue at hand, i.e., their father's deterioration and their mother's inability to take adequate care of him, it has a forward momentum and the drama builds. When it veers off into peripheral bits and pieces of one character's life, be it Peggy, Ellen, or Warren, then the story flags and feels like it is in danger of running off the track. The things that Peggy and Ellen discuss in the ladies room about mother's health and daughter's emotional well-being, and the remarks from the too friendly waitress regarding rumors about Warren's life are threads that do not get woven into the fabric of the play at best, and red herrings at worst. Picking up any one of these three threads would add depth to the characterizations, as well as broaden the scope of the play, but as it stands, Four Places would be a tighter script without the distractions.

Johnson's characters are well, if narrowly, drawn and, notwithstanding the underlying serious subject matter, offer a lot of humor in their dealings with each other. The playwright has found a good balance between the hard truths of this family's situation and the innate comedy of their human connection. Of course, it is funnier to us than it is to them because we recognize the familiarity of it and appreciate that we're not the ones sitting in the car or the restaurant this time around. Watching Peggy, Ellen, and Warren navigate through the four places is instructive and a reminder that love and family are what matter after all.

Photo by Meghan Moore (Kate Udall, Carole Monferdini, John Wojda)

  

  

  

  

 

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