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Strong script, powerful performances make a holiday hit
Photo by Keith Arsenault
A mother (Karel K. Wright) and daughter (Meg Heimstead, right) share a tangled relationship in Susan Hussey's poignant "Christmas Trio."
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Published: December 16, 2009
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More than 10 years after its popular debut at the Gorilla Theatre, Susan Hussey's "Christmas Trio" is back. I wasn't there in 1998, but if this production is any indication of its previous success, there's bound to be another revival.
This play is neither about Christmas, nor a BOGO sale at Payless. Rather, it's about the complex family dynamics between three dysfunctional individuals who use the holiday as a benchmark for recollections.
Barbara (Meg Heimstead) is the 40-year-old daughter who shuns marriage after witnessing her parents' unhappy arrangement. Edna (Karel K. Wright) is the practical, judgmental but innocuous mother — a woman who sees her supposedly picture-perfect childhood as the ideal for how life and people should be. And then there's dad Barry (Jim Wicker). A musician and intellectual, he's also an alcoholic and a disappointment to everyone in the family, including himself.
Disappointment is, in fact, just one line in the gnarled pattern this family has made for itself. There's also resentment, regret, anger, sadness — all the usual suspects associated with familial drama. Despite these negative tones, the characters are sympathetic and seem deserving of happiness.
The structure and story are pretty common fare, but what sets this work apart is the craftsmanship. Hussey, who died last year after a five-year battle with cancer, was both a playwright and a poet. This particular piece showcases her talent for assessing a situation with razor-sharp insight and perfectly articulating that situation with the choicest and fewest words — a poet's gift.
Under Bridget Bean's sensitive, detailed direction, the cast honored Hussey's memory with terrific performances. Wicker's charm poked through his character's shroud, and he made this man's artistic frustration palpable.
Wright was an interesting mix of apron-clad Stepford wife and liberated woman wearing shoulder pads. Her performance was fascinating, as she conveyed a sense that Edna was an onion someone forgot to peel.
Heimstead, too, skipped easily from independent grownup nursing a drink and old wounds to an excited eight-year-old to a brooding teen who realizes the false front her parents presented all these years.
Each actor played to the emotional cadence of Hussey's words and brought home her message that "the sounds families make are the same, only the details are different."
THEATER REVIEW
Christmas Trio
WHEN: through Sunday; 7 p.m. Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. Sunday
WHERE: Gorilla Theatre, 4419 N. Hubert Ave., Tampa
TICKETS: $20 to $25, depending on date of performance; call (813) 879-2914 or visit www.gorillatheatre.com
RUN TIME: about 90 minutes
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