Like so many in right life, the progeny in Jason Grote's unripe play operates under a conscientious code of denial. But far apart the others, this unhappy relatives receives ongoing visits from an uninvited shape-shifting, soda swilling, German-speaking specter to put in mind of them of their own, very extensive dysfunction. Titled "Maria/Stuart," Grote's dramedy (making its the public debut in a confident handiwork at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company directed by Pam MacKinnon), is set in the suburban kitchens of two embittered, middle-aged sisters, Marnie (Amy McWilliams) and Lizzie (Emily Townley). Ostensibly very manifold - Lizzie likes to show some cleavage and vents rant by cursing get a bang a sailor, while the relatively more finished Marnie tempers her worry with a sedate tide of drained wine - both sisters are pissed off, driven apart from their mates and invent a daunting presence.
Other members of the non-religious Jewish, mid-Atlantic body incorporate the sisters' unpleasant source Ruthie (very funnily played as a rancorous gnome by gay actor Sarah Marshall), Marnie's son Stuart (Eli James), a waggish hard-cover artist who lives with his mother, and Lizzie's waitress daughter Hannah (Meghan Grady). There's a third sister, Aunt Sylvia (Naomi Jacobson). Considered mentally ill, Sylvia, who wears below-the-elbow prosthetic hooks (used dexterously by Jacobs) as the development of a botched suicide have a go involving a train, is nevertheless happier than her siblings. Over the advance of two uncomfortable gatherings in Lizzie and Marnie's homes (Bergen County, N.J., and Bucks County, Pa., respectively) a supplication of the usual dysfunctional blood sins unfolds: alcoholism, oral abuse, repressed memories, incest, etc.
There are accusations, recriminations and comestibles fights. What's more a give form to shifter is showing itself in the behaviour of other kinfolk members. The appearances become increasingly constant - and squawking - to the location where they can no longer be ignored (not even by these masters of denial). According to Woolly program notes, Grote wrote "Maria/Stuart" after a mistress urged him to essay an out-moded "kitchen cesspit descent drama.
" Partly inspired by German screenwriter Frederich Schiller's 1800 photoplay "Maria Stuart," a romanticized liberate on Mary Queen of Scots' ill-omened relation with her cousin Queen Elizabeth I, he also adds a portion of white magic to the mix. By melding the metaphysical and the mundane, the scriptwriter strives to elevate the oft-tread palpable and it mostly works. MacKinnon has assembled an awesome throw equally old hand at comedy and drama.
McWilliams and James as ma and son both give only strong, naturalistic performances. Gay set author James Kronzer has cleverly bisected Woolly's originate to initiate two very unusual kitchens (think off-white categorization and avocado clutter) - a actual examination in contrasts.
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