REVIEW: “Things I Know To Be True” is gut-wrenching in the best way
Through 5/25 @ Curtain Call Theatre
Photos by David Quińones Jr.
“Every moment is believable, relatable and true. Funny when possible and never less than engaging, we watch transfixed as the shocking revelations detonate…”
Curtain Call Theatre has taken a hard left turn from its most recent production, the contrived farce Bank Job, with the current Things I Know To Be True. The production currently playing is a spiky family drama that CCT has had great success with in the past, like Old Love, New Love and Rabbit Hole. Coincidentally, both of those fine plays featured CCT Artistic Director Carol Max on stage, as this one does as well.
Australian playwright Andrew Bovell has crafted a beautiful portrait of a loving family directed by Cindy Bates that can easily tickle you with its familiar jostling and then immediately break your heart into a thousand pieces.
The four adult children in the play gather at the front of the stage and describe the phone call in the middle of the night that no parent should ever receive but every mother or father must answer in some form. Steve Fletcher in his robe stands upstage with the phone in his hand and we watch his family break apart for two hours to find out the news he’s receiving.
That sounds grim but there are many joyful stops along the way. The sexual awakening and flourishing of three of the siblings is a beautiful, stirring experience…until it becomes a wedge between them and the family. As they diverge from the person they were brought up to be, each character suffers a traumatic break in the eyes of their mother and father. We can’t help but respond empathetically, sympathetically and with a huge amount of interest because these are some of the finest actors in the Capital Region.
This cast is stacked with talent. The children of Carol and Steve are played by longtime CCT players Kris Anderson-Ward as hotshot Ben, Tiffany McWilliams as the searching and sweet Rosie, and Jeffrey Stubits as Mark/Mia, as well as the extraordinary Ellen Cribbs, who makes her CCT debut as Pip. They each get a lot to play with as they navigate their character’s memories of each other in childhood and the realization of who they have become. Pip has a very funny, withering take on her husband, Mark has a delicacy in his hands, Ben has a breeziness which will trip him up, and Rosie’s openness delights until we grieve that it’s a liability.
As exceptionally fine as these actors are, the production and the audience would have been better served if they had cast one of the roles with a member of the marginalized community represented.
Steve and Carol as the parents Bob and Fran, who are being pulled through the knot hole, hold many surprises as well. Carol is the family’s heart and soul welcoming Tiffany back home from Europe in the first group scene only to banish another child in a later scene. It’s hard to watch in the best way. Steve is compulsively watchable onstage which becomes perilous for those of us who love him as his character reaches their destination.
Every moment is believable, relatable and true. Funny when possible and never less than engaging, we watch transfixed as the shocking revelations detonate, knocking each character off as if they were guests at an Agatha Christie cottage, and hold our breath.
The set by Lucas A. Degirolama is a Curtain Call gem with the backyard visible through half of the onstage kitchen. Lighting is by Curtain Call veteran Lily Fossner. I especially enjoyed a character crossing down the lip of the stage and their face magically holding the light as upstage was dimmed. Stage managed to perfection by Cece Widomski.
Curtain Call Theatre is doing what they do best with this poignant family heartbreaker of a show with an all-star cast, terrific set, and heart for days.
”Things I Know To Be True” is at Curtain Call Theatre through 5/25. Tickets: www.curtaincalltheatre.com
