Photo by Tommy Carroll
Reviewed by Julia Stier
Pasadena City College Foundation
Through March 19
Photo by Tommy Carroll
Family history and American history are one and the same in Hoyt Hilsman’s newest play, Essex Corners, which is currently having a developmental run at Pasadena City College under the direction of Suzanne Hunt-Jenner.
Based on Thorton Wilder’s classic American drama, Our Town, Essex Corners follows the lineage of the Beal family, who have lived for generations in the same house in the titular town. We open on the present-day Beals facing the prospect of selling their familial home, a change that no doubt stirs up old memories of all that the house, and its inhabitants, have been through.
The similarities between Essex Corners and Our Town are undeniable – both feature an omnipresent Narrator (Maaren Edvard) and play around with time jumps. However, whereas Our Town focuses on the lives of a select few in a small New England town with limited perspectives, the residents of Essex Corners are not only aware of their own issues, but are also more in-tune and opinionated about events happening outside of their town limits.
Our first introduction to the Beal family takes place in the present day, with Charlie Beal (John Apicella) showing his house to potential buyers (Carlo Figlio and Mia Alaimo) at the behest of his daughter, Amy (Marisa Chandler).
Things start to get a little hard to track when we roll back the clock to 1963, with the same cast playing their own ancestors. This is when having a particular costume or catch phrase could help with following who plays which family member, and at what age. For example, the character of Noah Beal is played by Apicella, then later by James Calvert, albeit at different stages in Noah’s life. The Narrator does her best to explain these doublings, but a visual indicator would be helpful.
The final scenes are set in 1937, then 1914. Those well-versed in American theater history will recognize the Our Town-esque ending, with the dead Amy Beal peeking in on her Earthside relations, much like Emily Webb. At the opening night talkback, there was some debate as to whether ghost Amy’s visitation of her family both past and present is a redundant relapse through storylines we’ve already visited, or if it hammers home the idea of the circuitousness of time and life. For myself, I agree with the former opinion, but appreciated the homage to Wilder’s ending.
Where this show excels is in its ability to hold up a mirror to our own societal issues, and to prove that we are fretting about the same things now as we were in the decades before us. Conversations around starting families, the disappearance of the printed press, and the looming threat of war are as hot topics of conversations now as they were then.
Center for the Arts Theater – Pasadena City College, 1570 E. Colorado Boulevard, Pasadena. Fri.-Sat., March 13-14, 20-21, 7:30 pm, Sat., 2 pm, Thurs., March 19, 7:30 pm.; thru https://www.eventbrite.com/e/pcc-foundation-mainstage-theater-present-essex-corners-tickets-1981596442302?aff=oddtdtcreator
