Nikki Munoz

Sisters in Law

Sisters in Law

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Stephanie Faracy and Tovah Feldshuh in Jonathan Shapiro's Sisters in Law at the Wallis Performing Arts Center. (Photo by Kevin Parry)
Stephanie Faracy and Tovah Feldshuh in Jonathan Shapiro’s Sisters in Law at the Wallis Performing Arts Center. (Photo by Kevin Parry)

Sisters in Law

Reviewed by Nikki Munoz
The Wallis Annenberg Center for Performing Arts
Through October 13

“It doesn’t matter that I was the first and you were the second,” the character Sandra Day O’Connor (Stephanie Faracy) says to Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Tovah Feldshuh) in Sisters in Law. “What matters is that we won’t be the last.” It’s an inspiring and memorable line in a play that contains many of them. Sisters in Law, written by Jonathan Shapiro, spotlights the women behind each of the well-known public figures while examining the complex relationship between them.

Directed by Patricia McGregor, the production at The Wallis Annenberg Center for Performing Arts excels in its depiction of the first two women to serve as justices on the Supreme Court. Spanning decades, Sisters in Law references multiple court cases — yet, it is not the cases themselves that are at the center of this narrative, but rather what Ginsburg and O’Connor were like as colleagues.

Historically, Ginsburg has leaned left while O’Connor was a centrist and the swing vote in many cases. Their work ethics and perspectives on social change were — and still are — also drastically different, especially with regard to equality for women. O’Connor believes it is something that has to happen over the course of a slow progression, while Ginsburg believes in aiming radically for fast change.

Playing real public figures is hard to do, yet Feldshuh and Faracy are both stellar in their roles. Their dialogue involves a significant amount of debate; in this, both women are firm and confident in their views, but with an evident mutual respect at the core of their dialogue. Feldshuh and Faracy have radiant chemistry and a shared ability to portray respect and contempt at the same time.

While their stage time is equal, Ginsburg is established as the slightly more prominent lead, mostly by gearing the sympathy of an L.A. audience her way. Perhaps that’s because, from a progressive standpoint, her vision more closely mirrors today’s world and values than O’Connor’s does. Yet, in a lengthy scene in which they discuss how to implement gender equality into the Constitution, their exchange is so smooth and compelling that you almost want both to be right.

Shapiro has excelled in depicting a long and intricate relationship within the confines of a 90-minute play. Many scenes are brief — vignettes that portray the women’s everyday lives — but the pace slows down when it needs to, for the most pivotal moments. Further, the relationship between the women is presented carefully and thoughtfully, resulting in our emotional investment in how their story unfolds.

This investment is what keeps the overly sentimental ending from seeming entirely out of place. The final scene, in which O’Connor admits she was wrong about a couple of the cases that Ginsburg fought her on, is both satisfying and sweet, despite the on-the-nose delivery of the message. It’s here we’re reminded of the next (and thus far only) two women to become justices of the Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan — proving one thing that O’Connor was right about: she and Ginsburg were not the last.

 

Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, 9390 Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills; Tues.-Fri., 8 p.m.; Sat., 2:30 p.m. & 8 p.m.; Sun., 2:30 p.m. & 7:30 p.m.; through Oct .13. https://www.thewallis.org/sisters-in-law. Running time: 90 minutes.

Last Swallows

Last Swallows

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Tina Van Berckelaer, Shaw Purnell and Matthew Downs in Cailin Maureen Harrison's Last Swallows at The Other Space Theatre. (Photo by Ed Krieger)
Tina Van Berckelaer, Shaw Purnell and Matthew Downs in Cailin Maureen Harrison’s Last Swallows at The Other Space Theatre. (Photo by Ed Krieger)

Last Swallows

Reviewed by Nikki Munoz
Pandelia Canary Yellow Company
Through October 10

Last Swallows is a family drama whose title refers, at least in part, to its patriarch Robert (Bob Telford), whose bird watching hobby makes up a significant part of his character. Robert is not the real center of the family, however; rather, it is his wife, Elizabeth (Shaw Purnell).

Written by Cailin Maureen Harrison and directed by Kiff Scholl at The Other Space Theatre, Last Swallows follows Elizabeth as she desperately tries to round up the whole clan for vacation, convinced that this will be the last opportunity for them all to be together. The play aims to present a complex chaotic family as they deal with the natural progression of life and the inevitable tribulations that must be faced. The production misses some marks while hitting others.

Many of the characters are blatantly one-dimensional. The personalities of the siblings become apparent through their vibrant realistic interactions — but only marginally. Their spouses, who have less stage time, remain noticeably flat. Despite these limitations, each actor does his or her best with the material they’ve been given.

This is best observed in Purnell in her role as Elizabeth. Elizabeth is easily the most fleshed out character and Purnell underscores every nuance with her strong and commanding presence — even when her character is struck weak by various obstacles, both physical and mental. Elizabeth’s desperation to bring her family together is striking, and grounds the plot with convincing emotional stakes. Purnell also brings humor to Elizabeth through her occasional naiveties and frequent fixations — the same fixations that bring deep sadness at other moments of the play. Because we care about this character, we care about the family as a whole.

Collectively, these people are meant to be defined by a chaotic energy, with a lot of moving parts that conflict. To establish this, the playwright employs overlapping conversations, with characters in different settings speaking over each other — two, or sometimes even three, conversations happening simultaneously. The apparent purpose of this device is to reveal the underlying connections and similarities among these characters; unfortunately, this functions instead as a distraction that keeps the audience from remaining engaged.

What does work is director Scholl’s staging — having the performers cross and interweave on the small stage as they speak. In fact, this blocking works so well to create the chaos at the heart of the story that it would have been better performed without the overlapping dialogue.

Last Swallows draws to a close with a jarring and poignant scene in a hospital room, with all the characters effectively brought together despite the script’s mishandled schematics. The play should have ended there; instead, it continues for one more scene, in an attempt at a neatly-tied bow of an ending. Unfortunately, this ending contradicts everything the play up till now has aimed to do: portray the disarray and stubborn reality of one family’s experience over the passage of time.

 

The Actors Company — The Other Space Theatre, 916 N. Formosa Ave., West Hollywood; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m.; through Oct. 10. https://www.onstage411.com/newsite/boxoffice. Running time: one hour and 50 minutes with one 10-minute intermission.