Review: PAS D'ACTION at Theatre Artists Studio

The world premiere of Hal Corley's PAS D' ACTION at Theatre Artists Studio (The Studio) is about family dysfunction at its finest.

This award-winning playwright introduces us to Maya, daughter of Annabelle, sister to Maris and mother of Sally. The occasion? Annabelle, the Grand Dame of a children's ballet academy, has bullied her way into being honored by the local chamber of commerce.

Maya (Maureen Dias Watson) has her own secrets and grudges to share - including conversations with long-ago lesbian lover Emmarie (Hillary Low). Could it be that Sally (Ashley Faulkner) has made explicit what her mother kept covert?

The scholarly daughter explains that in ancient times, all you would have achieved would be marked on a totem. Sally's "crone-ma" Annabelle (Judy Rollings) is more than the sum total of her clippings. Her legacy is a doodem of broken dreams.

Maya's tortured brother (Jeff DiDomenico) hasn't forgiven himself for dashing his mother's hopes of raising a primo ballerino, but can any of Corley's characters ever truly be happy? It will take a patient audience to find out.

Dias Watson's portrayal of Maya is remarkable. Her character finds fleeting moments of levity at the family's expense while discovering that life's a bitch...and so is everyone else.

This production was not without drama of its own, but PAS D' ACTION (or as Maya calls it, the pantomime that frames the pas d' show offs) is worthy of your consideration.

Corley's script might have made a better libretto in a tell-all opera, but at this stage...on this stage...old family wounds are uncovered with the snatch of a bandage.

PAS D' ACTION runs through March 31 at The Studio. Tickets to this limited engagement are available at www.thestudiophx.org/tickets.

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