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OF GOOD STOCK Send This Review to a Friend
There is a poignant element in Melissa Ross’s play “Of Good Stock,” presented by Manhattan Theatre Club and directed by Lynne Meadow, that stands in contrast to its ditsy aspects. It is a poignant husband and wife relationship that is well-written and well-acted.
Jess, performed with intelligence and sensitivity by Jennifer Mudge, has been stricken with breast cancer and has been undergoing chemotherapy. Her mother died of cancer and she is trying her best to cope with her fear of death. Her husband Fred, a writer specializing in food, played conviningly by Kelly AuCoin, loves her, is devoted to her and struggling not to face the possibility of losing her. In a dramatic moment when their fears and emotions burst to the surface, we see a portrait of love and potential loss that seems totally genuine and the play at that point is very moving.
One cannot say the same with respect to the portraits of Jess’s two sisters, who visit in July to celebrate her 41st birthday at the fancy Cape Cod beach house left to Jess by her late father, Mick Stockton, a famous Pulitzer Prize-winning author, but also a philandering husband and careless father. Her having inherited the house is a cause of jealousy. The house, by the way, is impressively designed by Santo Loquasto, and when rooms revolve, we can also see the beachfront.
At the core, of course, is the relationship between the three sisters, often spelled out with comedy and gag lines but also showing family dysfunction and long-simmering tensions. Celia, played with twitching nervousness by Heather Lind, struggles to control her feelings and sometimes is quite funny whether or not we are meant to laugh at her. She has brought to the messy family gathering her boyfriend Hunter, played by Nate Miller, who seems to be a very nice guy and has a speech in which he describes Celia as being such a beautiful loving and sensitive person. Unfortunately, nothing we see confirms his take on her.
The other sister is Amy, played by Alicia Silverstone as a real pain who weeps most of the time and has been planning an elaborate wedding to which Jess and Celia resent having to attend. They apparently needn’t worry. Celia’s intended Josh (Gregg Keller), unable to take her constant hysteria, is out of there in a dramatic but perversely comic moment of abandonment when he leaves abruptly, causing more endless tears.
The playwright obviously has feeling for these privileged women and the baggage in their lives, but the only one I cared about was Jess. There is the obligatory scene in which the three sit together at the beach and release their frustrations and anger with a supposedly funny bursts of profanity—repeatedly shouting “f—k you” to the entire world. It’s not exactly gifted dialogue.
Apart from the interesting Jess, it is Fred and Hunter who come off best. They reflect substantial personas and maturity in contrast to the vacuous Celia and Amy.
The playwright’s take on her characters, their confrontations and the described backgrounds of their lives, especially when the knives are out, would indicate her affection for them, flaws and all. The humor she finds in the relationships and the flare-ups hold our attention. But the only depth to be found is in the relationship between Fred and Jess. They would be entitled to a play all their own. At City Center Stage I. Phone: 212-581-1212. Reviewed July 2, 2015.
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