Molly Gray, Jordan Wall, Kathleen Bailey, Jesse Merrill, Elle Vernee and Mackenzie Rickaby in Judith Leora's Elijah at The Victory Theatre Center. (Photo by Tim Sullens)
Molly Gray, Jordan Wall, Kathleen Bailey, Jesse Merrill, Elle Vernee and Mackenzie Rickaby in Judith Leora’s Elijah at The Victory Theatre Center. (Photo by Tim Sullens)

Elijah

Reviewed by Terry Morgan
The Victory Theatre Center
Extended through December 22

Placing a disparate group of characters in a location they can’t leave and forcing them to deal with each other has been a tried and true source of dramatic conflict since Sartre’s No Exit. The claustrophobia and stress of interacting with new people ratchets up the tension swiftly. So it is with Judith Leora’s new play, Elijah, which is receiving its West Coast premiere at The Victory Theatre. Unfortunately, strong production values and a fine ensemble can’t prevent this show from trying to spotlight too many issues at once.

Lori (Kathleen Bailey), a manager at a rural Texas TGI Fridays, has opened the restaurant to provide food and shelter to a group of people in the middle of Hurricane Elijah. She has one cook, and has pressed her teenage niece, Ashley (Mackenzie Rickaby), into service as a waitress. Young couple Dawn (Molly Gray) and Greg (Jordan Wall) are on vacation in the area, although Dawn is cagey as to why. Gay lawyer Tim (Jesse Merrill) and conservative Christian Patience (Elle Vernee) are on opposite sides of a capital punishment protest. As the hours pass, moving toward the scheduled execution in a local prison, the secrets of all these people hiding from the storm will be revealed.

Gray manages to take the character with the least credible plotline, Dawn, and still make her sympathetic through the power of her likable performance. Wall struggles more with the role of Greg, whose character’s backstory seems somewhat extraneous to the rest of it. Vernee does excellent work as Patience, relaying the woman’s kindness and tendency to judge others with equal skill. Merrill is terrific as the somewhat imperious Tim, who may be morally correct but undercuts his conduct by being regularly unpleasant. Finally, Bailey is good as the put-upon Lori, who tries to hold everything together, and Rickaby is funny as the bratty Ashley, although her character as written never entirely coheres.

Director Maria Gobetti gets strong work from her ensemble and stages the show with brisk expertise. Evan Bartoletti’s set is impressive in its level of detail, as if the production had actually taken a whole room from an existing TGI Fridays and placed it on the Victory stage. Playwright Leora is clearly talented and skilled at writing humorous dialogue, but the contortions of the plot don’t seem believable. On top of that, the play touches on so many different social issues (capital punishment, child abuse, homophobia to name but a few) that it’s barely able to do any of them justice.

There are certainly enjoyable elements in this production, but the play itself needs shoring up.

The Victory Theatre Center, 3326 W. Victory Blvd., Burbank; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 4 p.m.; Extended through Dec. 22. www.thevictorytheatrecenter.org. Running time: approximately 80 minutes with no intermission.