From left, Anita Schwaber, Alexandria Ruttschow, Jennifer Jane and T. C. Wits star in ‘Independence.’
Cambria’s Pewter Plough Playhouse is back in action, and the first play after some required playhouse retrofitting is Lee Blessing’s “Independence,” a dramatic exploration of a complex, eccentric and dysfunctional family of women.
It’s intense, but has enough dark humor to keep it from being just a soap opera. The excellent cast includes one veteran Plough actress and introduces three talents new to the playhouse stage.
The play is set in Independence, Iowa, where a reunion of sorts is taking place. After four years, Kess, the oldest sister, has been called back from her academic profession in Minneapolis by sister Jo, apparently in crisis mode after her mother knocked her down and injured her.
Four years earlier, Kess had their mother, Evelyn, committed to the local mental hospital, where she stayed for a few months and now works as a volunteer in the arts and crafts workshop. Jo has assumed the role of her mother’s keeper, and she and Sherry, the youngest sister, live with their mother in the house where their mother was born and has always lived.
Sherry is about to graduate from high school at 19, after dropping out at 15 to have a baby that she gave up for adoption. She can’t wait to leave the family home. Soon after Kess arrives, Jo announces that she’s pregnant with no plan of getting married.
Kess is lesbian, and that’s a delicate subject, but her mother’s anger at being sent to the mental hospital has dissipated after four years, and she’s glad to see Kess and have her daughters together again. But the “reunion” only proves that, as the playwright says, “you can’t make a family where there isn’t one.”
Each of the women is a unique character, and director Brent Harvey makes the most of their differences with the well-chosen cast. The women are quite different physically, matching body types with their characters’ personalities.
Anita Schwaber, who has directed and acted in many community plays, is the mother, Evelyn. She captures the complexity of a woman who is obviously ditzy, but probably not as mentally fragile as she seems. In fact, she may be just clever enough to act crazy to ensure the attention of her daughters.
She appears dependent, but actually she is controlling. Schwaber manages to make her likable and even funny one minute, and obnoxious the next.
T. C. Wits is strong and likable as Kess, the only emotionally stable member of the family, who acts as peacemaker, although it’s a thankless job.
Jennifer Jane is the most conflicted character as Jo. Her pregnancy, along with her interaction with her sisters, ignites a transformation. Jane is good as Jo, who goes from seeing herself as her mother’s caregiver to realizing that her life is becoming a trap.
Alexandria Ruttschow is excellent as the manically defiant Sherry, who chooses to ignore her mother and refuses to cooperate with Kess and her efforts to “normalize” the family. The self-proclaimed “first lady of meaningless sex,” she has had sex with nearly every man in town and is proud of it. Ruttschow plays her as aggravating, but often comical, adding some much-needed moments of humor to the dialogue.
In fact, the moments of dry humor from Sherry and her mother are a welcome relief from the high drama and relentless angst. Playwright Blessing is obviously capable of clever dialogue, and seasoning the dysfunction with more humor— however dark—would have been a functional move.
As usual, the set, designed by Jim Buckley, is right on, with its vintage heartland furnishings —and even a screen door.
It’s nice to have the Pewter Plough Playhouse back, and to see fine acting in a play with interesting characters who explore serious issues in an entertaining way.
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