Jenny Soo and JT Melaragno (Photo by Nic Murphy)
Reviewed by Lovell Estell III
Theatre of NOTE
Through March 22
Sarah Lilly (Photo by Nic Murphy)
Few things are more enduring in human nature than the desire to get something for nothing. The pitch for the quick buck or easy gain is ongoing, and there are always people — not always clueless, gullible suckers — who are taken in. Many of Madoff’s victims were savvy Wall Street denizens and investors that found out the hard way, to their embarrassment, that all that glitters is not gold.
In playwright Lauren Smerkanich’s drama, the monster of fraud enters the lives of a small group of vulnerable women in the person of Angela (Sierra Marcks in a fine turn). She is a successful realtor, who one day runs into her former client Judith (Jenny Soo) at a supermarket. Judith is timid, visibly frail, and frustrated trying to decide what type of cake to buy for a dinner party. The problem is solved when Angela offers her a gift basket, then invites her to a party that Angela describes as a “charity event, a women’s empowerment thing” or Dignity Circle.
Angela is a smooth talker and a skilled grifter, who woos troubled, vulnerable women into her group, and Judith is her latest “mark.” But first Judith must gift a “devotion” to Angela, and then seek out new members to bring into the circle (known as ladies-in-waiting) who will then “gift” money to Judith, and so on. It’s a not too sophisticated pyramid scheme in which Angela promises her devoted group that membership in the Circle will bring them abundance, and most of all, freedom from male domination and financial need.
We catch glimpses of these meetings, where Angela plies the women with affirmations, fictions about her own mother, and provides a sweetly sympathetic ear. Kate (Sarah Lilly), curses like a sailor, and has problems with a co-worker at her job while Heather (Melanie Thompson) is a single mother and a school teacher, who has a child with leukemia. Then there’s Judith, who is suffering from a severe case of low-self-esteem and endures regular abuse from her controlling husband Scott (J.T. Melaragno).
The unraveling of this is all too predictable, with a final scene showing Angela in prison orange, working her spiel to fellow inmates, and Judith returning to her fragile, sad life as a housewife. The play would be substantially better if there were more of a robust, sustainable dramatic arc. Many of the scenes do little or nothing to advance or bolster the narrative. The pacing by co-directors Smerkanich and Clara Aranovich is far from judicious. Cast performances, on balance are good (Soo and Marcks especially), while Julia Hibner and Stephanie Yackovetsky provide an effective lighting design. Rounding out the ensemble are Alexis Delarosa as Angela’s husband Parker and Zipporah Shunise in multiple roles.
Theatre of NOTE, 1517 N. Cahuenga Blvd., Hollywood. Fri.-Sat., 8 pm, Sun., 2 pm, Mon., 8 pm, Thurs. Feb. 26 and March 5, 8 pm, dark Sun., March 15; thru March 22. https://theatreofnote.ludus.com/index.php Running time: 90 minutes with no intermission.
