Eileen T’Kaye and Ann Noble in ICT’s production of Other Desert Cities
Culture Writer
Our “reality” often amounts to little more than what others want us to know. Hence, authors of non-fiction must verify facts, and stick to the facts, or risk distorting truth beyond recognition.
But what of writers of personal memoirs, who draw so little from verifiable accounts and so much from their own faulty memories and experiences? What if family members are keeping secrets they swore they would take to the grave? And what if those secrets have remained hidden under pretend realities intended to keep them from ever seeing the light of day?
International City Theatre provides an excellent example in Jon Robin Baitz’s emotionally supercharged Other Desert Cities, a 2012 Pulitzer Prize finalist.
As is so often the case these days, we have a highly politicized play that need not be. Bashing of Bush, conservatives, and “their wars” take center stage before playwright Baitz finally gets down to business. Once he does, an intensely interesting story emerges that both shocks and feels familiar.
Other Desert Cities is set in Palm Springs, California, in the beautiful modern home of Polly (Suzanne Ford) and Lyman (Nicholas Hormann) Wyeth— fabulous set design is by JR Bruce. The Wyeths have retired from long and successful acting careers and, in Lyman’s case, a second career as a U.S. ambassador. They have hobnobbed with others who have achieved fame, fortune, and power. By all appearances, their lives have been, in a word, perfect.
It is Christmas Eve, and the grown-up Wyeth children have come home for the holiday. Daughter Brooke (Ann Noble) has written a memoir of which she is anxious to gain the family’s approval. As such, son Trip (Blake Anthony Edwards), a successful producer of a reality TV show, gets caught in the middle of a family war in the making.
Eileen T’Kaye plays Polly’s live-in sister Silda, who is angry, unstable, and now lacks the wherewithal to live on her own. Brooke has had her own episode with emotional instability from which she has recently emerged.
Polly and Lyman are politically conservative and receive almost relentless criticism from Brooke and Silda for it. To Baitz’s credit, he resists painting Polly and Lyman as unfeeling monsters, especially Lyman who, as played by Hormann, comes across as fine and daddy-like, much like the stereotype of Father Knows Best.
The family secret that renders Brooke’s memoir fictional, and the years of writing it for naught, revolves around the startling incident that resulted in the loss of eldest Wyeth son Henry years earlier.
Director caryn desai [sic] has made the right calls in allowing her power-packed cast to go all out. Each of the five actors gets at least one effusive monologue. In a play with the punch of Other Desert Cities, it is hard to overact.
Noble’s Brooke is angry, restless and full of scorn, especially the sort she directs at Polly. Ford’s Polly is direct and no-nonsense, and she takes no prisoners. Yet she feels deeply, a trait that humanizes her character and saves her from the two-dimensional stereotype Brooke and Silda work so hard to ascribe to her.
The men of this play are more likable than the women. Plays need some likable characters. Gentle, respectable Lyman and clever peacemaker Trip fill the bill.
An unpredictable ending arouses a mix of emotions and thoroughly explains everything that has gone before. Seldom do loose ends tie up so neatly, even though the fallout wreaks havoc in the short term.
Other Desert Cities is a gripping, often uncomfortable dramatic foray into families’ alternate realities. It will make you question your own.
Other Desert Cities continues at International City Theatre through June 29. Tickets are $47 for Friday and Saturday evening performances and for Sunday matinees, $42 for Thursday-evening performances. Evening performances are at 8pm; Sunday matinees are at 2pm. ICT is located in the Long Beach Performing Arts Center at 300 East Ocean Blvd. in Long Beach. Call (562) 436-4610 for reservations and information. Tickets are also available online at InternationalCityTheatre.org .
