Charlotte Stay Close
Reviewed by Dana Martin
EST/LA
Extended through November 3
Playwright Christine Hamilton-Schmidt knows that familial relationships die hard despite imposed distance or inherent dysfunction. Charlotte Stay Close finds a young woman navigating repressed family dysfunction in the final days of her life. The production, in its world premiere at EST/LA, struggles to find the intended weight of the story.
Twenty-something Charlotte (Jenny Soo) has terminal cervical cancer. She’s in hospice after having returned to her childhood home, to pass away near her sister Kathryn (Tarah Pollock) and her brother-in-law Dustin (Andy Shepard). But Charlotte has a distant relationship with both of them. What’s worse, Kathryn and Dustin’s marriage is also in its final stages of life — they can barely stand each other and argue constantly.
Still, both Kathryn and Dustin want to make up for lost time with Charlotte and each care for her in their own way: Kathryn stonewalls and Dustin shows vulnerability. Kathryn bullies, Dustin comforts. Kathryn is jealous and suspicious of Dustin’s affection and attention toward Charlotte and belittles him every chance she gets. Their relentless marital troubles take center stage, forcing Charlotte into a supporting role — on her own deathbed at the end of her own life. The sisters share a juvenile relationship and Kathryn uses Charlotte as her personal sounding board and punching bag until the bitter end. Charlotte’s closest bonds are with an unseen nurse and the ghost of her mother.
The actors find little chemistry amongst themselves. They lack specificity of place as well as for the origin of their respective physical and emotional pain. Jenny Soo finds a witty, snarky Charlotte who’s so full of life and vitality that it’s hard to believe she’s so close to death. Soo never quite settles into the weariness of one who has long battled terminal cancer. Tarah Pollock’s Kathryn is cold, cruel and mostly unlikeable. She’s so staunchly antagonistic throughout that the character’s more tender, affectionate moments ring false. Andy Shepard’s Dustin is endearing, and he is the most at ease of the three actors.
Director Jonathan Muñoz-Proulx’s scene transitions are smooth, but he misses many opportunities to mine the complexity of the relationships and the waves of grief each character expresses. The scenes do clip but there isn’t enough space or time allowed for the depth of feeling grief brings. Stephen George’s sound design is top notch; it compresses time and lends a sense of urgency to the story. Amanda Knehans’s set design is versatile, clean and effective. The hospital room continuously shifts perspective to cleanly accommodate an audience in the round. Melanie Fairchild’s costumes are simplistic.
Hamilton-Schmidt’s dialogue is sparse, pointed and reveals the ugliness of denial, the messiness of grief. But the play spends much of its time on marital spats and frivolous jealousy rather than digging into the root of the sisters’ pain. Their relationship is emotionally volatile and completely dysfunctional, the obvious products of a broken family. Charlotte refuses to contact her estranged father, and the siblings vehemently disagree about their shared familial history, the level of abuse suffered by their mother and why their father walked out on them. Charlotte Stay Close doesn’t offer any sort of resolve or cathartic loving send off, just bickering until the bitter end. Typical family drama.
Atwater Village Theatre, 3269 Casitas Ave., Atwater Village; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m.; Extended through Nov. 3. (818) 839-1197 or dime.io/events/charlotte-stay-close. Running time: 90 minutes with no intermission.
