Review: Footlights Theatre Showcases Endearing New Comedy

The tiny Footlights Theatre in Falmouth, ME, has a hit on its hands with the endearing new comedy, Leonora Rabinowitz, I Love You, by local writers Hal J. Cohen and Amanda Painter, a sweet, funny, and often moving play about a widow and her daughter's exploration of their troubled sexual experiences, the journey this therapy takes them on, and the heartwarming outcomes of their respective searches.

Originally presented in a shorter version at Portland's Fringe Festival, the new two-act play set in Portland and Peaks Island fleshes out the characters and allows the humanity of the situation to blossom affectingly. Director and co-playwright, Hal J.Cohen is himself a therapist, and thus the play's focus on discovering healthy sexual relationships is something with which he has extensive experience. He and Painter demonstrate a remarkable naturalness of dialogue and the ability to carve out characters with whom we can empathize. The play's structure is tight, the humor unforced, the pathos real. There are occasional moments, such as the final conversation between mother and daughter, which hover at the didactic, but are rescued from preaching by Cohen's excellent direction and the actors' ability to project an unaffected genuineness.

The production with attractive décor by Michael J. Tobin, with sound by Michael McInnis (costumes and lighting uncredited), and stage managed by Beth Somerville, makes effective uses of the small space, and even the somewhat longish set changes necessitated by the venue's resources, are stylishly choreographed and underscored with music to maintain the action's flow.

The four-person cast gives fine performances throughout. Jackie Olivieri makes a loveable Jane, the lonely widow for whom sexual repression has long been a fact of life and whose relationship with her daughter is laced with quiet reproach and anger. Olivieri manages Jane's journey convincingly, finding a quirky humor in the incongruous moments, the genuine heartbreak in her searching, and the emotional range to make her character's transformation believable. As her intelligent, competitive, up-tight lawyer daughter Valerie, Amanda Painter gives a subtle and sympathetic performance which preserves the young woman's vulnerability beneath the surface of her crisp remoteness.

Rachel Flehinger creates a warm, motherly portrait of the sex therapist, Leonora Rabinowitz - a straight-talking, earth mother figure with a spot-on New York accent. Given some of the best lines in the play, Flehinger delivers her acerbic witticisms with a hearty dose of gentle nurturing. As Kevin, the sex surrogate who comes to work with Jane, Tommy Waltz finds the perfect balance between seductive physicality and professional reserve, sensitive interaction and distancing irony. All four performances attain dimensions of complexity and humanity that save the characters and the obvious comedy of many of the situations from becoming mere stereotypes.

On a Friday evening, the sixty plus seat house was sold out and the appreciative audience was entirely engaged in the play. In the three short years since Footlights has joined the number of Maine's small theatres, it has ventured into increasingly more interesting work. The company and venue are a welcome addition to greater Portland's cultural scene.

Photos Courtesy of Footlights Theatre

Leonora Rabinowitz, I Love You runs through February 27, 2016, at the Footlights Theatre, 190 US Route One South, Falmouth, ME. www.thefootlightsinfalmouth.com 207-747-5434

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