Full disclosure – I went to Heathcliff Entertainment’s production of The House of Yes (written by Wendy MacLeod and directed by Brandt Reiter) full of anticipation.  The movie of the same name (based on MacLeod’s play) had long been my litmus test; if someone loved the film as much as I did, then I knew we’d be friends.  If someone didn’t get it . . . well, let’s just say we didn’t exchange holiday cards after that.

So seeing one of my favorite movies in its original form on stage was, I knew, going to be great fun for me.  And this production, starring Jonathan Blakeley as Marty, Tommy Heleringer as Anthony, Marcia Everitt as Mrs. Pascal, Zoë Swenson as Jackie-O, and Hilary Bettis as Lesly lived up to my expectations and more.  Still, this is a story with a lot of bite so before you go I suggest you arrive prepared.  (Don’t worry, no spoilers ahead).

Happy, frightened or mad? Jackie-O (Zoe Swenson) meets her twin brother Marty's (Jonathan Blakely) new fiancee, Lesly (Hilary Bettis) in Heathcliff Entertainment's production of "The House of Yes"

The story itself is a simple one, really.  On a dark and stormy Thanksgiving night Marty (Blakeley) is coming home to his family home in Washington DC to introduce his new girlfriend, Lesly (Bettis) and announce their engagement.  Eagerly awaiting his return is younger brother Anthony (Heleringer) who’s a bit uncomfortable in his own skin, eccentric mother Mrs. Pascal (Marcia Everitt) who floats through the family home as though she’s vacationing in it, and bizarre, tilted, crazy twin-of-Marty: Jackie-O (Swenson) who is prone to fits, can be giddy to the point of  madness, and who is waiting for Marty with a devotion that outshines the rest of her family put together.

When Marty arrives his normalcy next to this bag of nuts makes him seem like Marilyn Munster next to Herman and Lily – at least at first.  Marty struggles against the insanity of his childhood home the way a salmon struggles against the current in order to spawn upstream.  On a positive note, Marty does actually succeed for a while in bringing his New York city life back home with him in a protective  bubble.  His love for his bride-to-be is admirable; Lesly is nothing like this group and her innocence and naivety is refreshing (both to him and to the audience).  Lesly comes from humble beginnings, hails from the great state of Pennsylvania, and met Marty when she waited on him in the local donut shop.  Despite Jackie-O’s rapid fire insults (most of which fly, at least initially, over Lesly’s head) Marty holds Lesly up as exactly the type of woman he’s glad he found.  She’s the perfect one for him, or so he’d have everyone think.  Not everyone is so sure.

Marcia Everitt, Tommy Heleringer, Jonathan Blakeley, Hilary Bettis, Zoe Swenson (Photo Credit: Mark Krieger)

The story gets interesting when the storm creates a power outage in the house and, with Mrs. Pascal not interested in even attempting to continue the evening, everyone retreats to different corners of the house.  It is only then, when characters deal one on one, that little breadcrumbs of history are dropped onto the path of this crooked family story.  Who was Marty’s last girlfried who he never speaks of?  What happened in the past that made Jackie-O go crazy?  What’s with the Kennedy obsession?  And just exactly how deep does this family bond run?

When all is revealed it’s like the crack of a whip and the curious games, odd traditions, and barely-kept secrets all come tumbling toward you in a mad rush.  This is one hell of a family.

Director Brandt Reiter does a wonderful job of leading this cast through a script that can only be seen as a gift to actors.  Each scene is so full of crisp, dense, biting dialogue that it might be tempting to speed up the pace and deliver this jewel in a rapid fire method just to show off; the way some piansists will rush a great concerto to show they never drop a note.  But Reiter keeps the pacing just right and that allows the wonderful ensemble to bring these scenes to life in a way that builds to the climactic end.

While all the actors were top notch I most enjoyed the nuances of Ms. Swenson’s performance and Ms. Bettis’ performance.  Ms. Swenson made sure to play Jackie-O in a way that merely hinted at crazy, rather than bringing the hysteria out full blown.  In fact, by seeing Jackie-O as a grounded girl made her acts of irrationality all the more eerie and frightening.  Ms. Bettis instilled Lesly with a sweet veneer of foolishness but nevery idiocy.  Lesly may not have been exposed to everything that others her age have seen, but she’s determined to learn as much as she can from each new thing she’s exposed to, and that makes her charming and vulnerable in this house of jaded characters.

Is it just a game, or is she crazy? Jonathan Blakeley as "Marty" and Zoe Swenson as "Jackie-O" in Heathcliff Entertainment's production of "The House of Yes" (Photo Credit: Mark Krieger)

It was a wonderful expereince for me to see this great favorite brought to me, and seeing this live version showed me several new things I hadn’t seen before.  So, by all means, say “yes” to this house, and get your ticket to the strangest family reunion you’ll ever be a part of.

~~~

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Five Finger Discount

I’ve never been involved in a bank heist but if I were, I could never be tasked with the role of Getaway Driver.  I can’t navigate with any certainty when the car is required to do above 30 mph on a city street.  Ask me to drive at break-neck speed through urban obstacles and then set you down at the end safely and I assure you: I can’t do it.  But Adam Szymkowicz can … and in his new play Pretty Theft directed by Angela Astle he shows us how he navigates those narrow streets and dark alleys like a pro.  In the hands of a lesser writer (or the wrong director) I could see this play crashing into a wall and laying in a twisted heap of shards and confusion.  But it doesn’t, it gets it right every time, and that’s what makes Pretty Theft so appealing.

Captive Audience

The moment you first lay eyes on Dartmouth-bound Allegra (Marnie Schulenburg) you watch as she barely catches her breath, so eager is she to explain to her potential new coworker (and old “friend”) Suzy (Maria Portman Kelly) how utterly worthless and useless she considers herself.  Just as quickly Suzy eagerly tallies the toll it’s taken on her being pegged as the school slut and the boyfriend-stealer; it’s the resume of a lost girl who gets her sense of self based on how other people react to her, despite the armor she puts on in the hopes of convincing people she doesn’t care what they think.  Both girls are troubled but in different ways, and a well-what-the-hell-else-do-I-have-going-on-around-here friendship of proxemics springs up between them.

Allegra and Suzy work together in a group home for troubled adults where their autistic charge, Joe (Brian Pracht), spends his days speaking in Ralph Wiggim style non sequiturs, and taking pretty things from people and storing them in a box he sleeps with in order to make himself feel safe.  We come to find that before he came to live in this group home, Joe was a fixer of things … seemingly mechanical things like toasters and washing machines, though as the play moves forward we see that he is attracted to anything (or anyone) that is broken, which is why he is so fond of Allegra and will only truly respond to her.  He is not the only one who takes things; Suzy will walk away with anything that isn’t nailed down, be it trinkets, her mom’s car, or her BFF’s boyfriend, Bobby (Zack Robidas).

Across the country in an out-of-the-way diner another what-the-hell-else-do-I-have-going-on encounter is working its way towards something a little more as smooth talking “art dealer” Marco (Todd d’Amour) charms the forlorn, lonely and nameless Waitress (Candice Holdorf) to fall for him.  Coffee cup after coffee cup he weaves a tale for her of how (before he “retired”) his passion was collecting beautiful things … and soon enough we get that “art dealer” is just his cute phrase for something a lot darker.

These characters are all wound so tightly that it’s only a matter of time before they all break and go spinning off in all directions … and if you’re not paying attention there are some twirling ballerinas to help layer in the sub-text (Candice Holderdorf again, as well as Cotton Wright who does triple duty also filling in as Allegra’s cold and cruel mother and the group home supervisor, and finally Lynn Kenny who doubles as the Psychiatrist).  Sometimes lithe and lovely, sometimes screeching and twisted, these ballerinas serve as the linchpins which keep everything crazily bound together.

Eventually when the two stories crash into each other, as inevitably they were meant to do, there is a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach as you watch what you can’t believe you’re watching … I won’t give it away  but it’s certainly one of the most disturbing scenes I’ve ever seen played out before me in live theatre.  And then, right before you cover your eyes the steering wheel is given one final expert turn and you’re deposited safely at the end of the road with your heart in your throat but your feet back on terra firma.

Pretty Theft is playing at The Access Theater (380 Broadway, 4th Floor - 2 blocks south of Canal Street) through May 17th. Performances are at 8:00pm Thursdays through Saturdays and 7:00pm on Sundays. To purchase tickets click here.

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