Other Desert Cities
Vintage Theatre: 1/16 – 3/1
L-R:Jan Cleveland and Molly Killoran
“Other Desert Cities” Is a Pulitzer Prize
nominated drama with a deliciously unpredictable script. Playwright Jon Robin Baitz has done a
masterful job of penning a script that makes audiences do a complete reversal of
their preliminary vision of his characters in Act Two.
After being gone for six
years, Brooke Wyeth returns to her parents’ home in Palm Springs, California
with her new novel in hand. It’s Christmas and Brooke announces to her parents
that she’s about to publish “a memoir” describing a tragic event in the
family’s past that opens a deep emotional wound.
Molly Killoran portrays
Brooke Wyeth with the exact right petulant look and peevish expressions as the
rebel of this dysfunctional family.
Jan Cleveland portrays
Brooke’s mother, Polly, as a witty if bigoted conservative at the top of the
play and later as a furious matriarch as her daughter’s unforgiving assertions
intensify.
Paul Page as Lyman Wyeth
As Lyman Wyeth, Paul Page
provides a nuanced portrayal of a man who struggles to remain the caring
patriarch of this dysfunctional tribe even in the face of the merciless
accusations of his daughter.
Molly Killoran and Luke Sorge
Luke Sorge turns in a completely
natural performance in the role of Brooke’s brother, Trip.
Libby Rife portrays Silda
Grauman, Polly’s alcoholic sister with a self-deprecating humor that changes to
emotional anguish as her niece Brooke’s torrent of vitriol is unleashed.
Director Bernie Cardell has done a
great job eliciting very fine performances from one and all in this intimate and compelling production. Cardell, who also designed
the realistic set, wisely incorporates a wall full of empty picture frames that
provides us as audience with a metaphor for blocked family secrets.
Vintage Theatre
presents
“Other Desert
Cities”
A memoir dredging up
tragic events in the Wyeth family history is a wound they don't want reopened.
Jan.
16 - Mar. 1
Fri/Sat at 7:30
p.m.; Sun at 2:30 p.m.; Sat., Feb 28 t 2:30 p.m.
Vintage Theatre,
1468 Dayton St., Aurora 80010
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