By George Basler
Remember the 1970s — bad clothes, bad hair, vinyl records and rotary phones. That’s the setting for playwright Katie Forgette’s Incident at Our Lady of Perpetual Help, a very funny and, for the most part, affectionate “send up” of the social mores and expectations of that era.
The play opened Sept. 22 and is running through this weekend (Sept. 29-Ot. 1) at the Cider Mill Stage in Endicott. Produced by BLAST (Bold Local Actors of the Southern Tier) and directed by BLAST’s artistic director, Rob Egan, it effectively tickles the funny bone thanks to first-rate comic performances by the six-person cast.
The cast also successfully plays some brief, but crucial, heartfelt moments that come at the end of the play.
As described by Forgette, Incident is a memory play that focuses on the O’Sheas, a lower middle class Irish Catholic family, as they navigate a series of family crises in the bygone year of 1973. While the play is not autobiographical, Forgette knows the territory well, having been raised in a Catholic family of 10 children and attending parochial school for 12 years.
Linda O’Shea (Kylee Thetga), the oldest daughter, narrates the action as she looks back at some turbulent events when she was 19 years old. The young woman is heading to Stanford University on a scholarship with her boyfriend, Buzz. But Buzz hasn’t called, or written, and Linda is in a blue funk.
Things go from bad to worse when a sanctimonious parish priest accidentally over overhears Linda’s salty, but hilarious, description of female puberty to her younger sister. The priest threatens to tell her irascible father (Danny Ceballos). For Linda that’s a fate worse than death.
Her long-suffering mother (Lisa Dutcher), spunky younger sister (Megan Howell) and crusty Aunt Terri (Amy Hathaway Gilbert) scramble to pull Linda out of hot water and deal with another unwelcome surprise that the young woman drops. (No spoilers here.)
The action, which moves at a breakneck pace, supplies a steady stream of laughs. Adding to the humor is demanding Grandma O’Shea (Wendy Germond), who is heard, but never seen, as she bangs on the upstairs floor and shouts loud commands from her bedroom.
Thetga plays Linda with engaging gusto that makes you root for her throughout the play. It’s a sparkling comic performance of the first order.
In a recent interview, Forgette said she’s fascinated by the fallibility of memory: how two people can remember the same event so differently, especially family members.
That fascination is on display in Incident. One of Forgette’s story-telling techniques is to have Linda step out of the action periodically to address the audience directly about how memories can be subjective and change over time. Other characters also step outside the action to pester Linda for monologues to tell their version of events. The back and forth adds a refreshing twist to the play, and the BLAST cast skillfully pulls it off.
Ceballos does a fine job playing three roles: the irascible father, the sanctimonious priest and Betty Heckenbach, a malicious gossip who is the priest’s secretary. (Linda explains the similarity by noting, in her memory, different people sometimes took on the appearance of her overbearing father.)
A top comic moment is when Ceballos plays the Heckenbach character in drag, complete with a gray wig and hideous dress. The actor makes the most of this gender change.
As Aunt Terri, Hathaway Gilbert dispenses comic zingers with real snap and pop. The character is one tough cookie but also fiercely devoted to her sister and extended family. Hathaway Gilbert effectively plays the toughness and the tenderness.
Dutcher offers a performance filled with warmth as a mother coping with her family’s quirks and calamities. It’s a tribute to Dutcher’s acting that the character is never a caricature. And Howell is quirky and funny as the younger sister, who prowls the stage as a junior Philip Marlowe.
While Incident is funny throughout, it takes on added resonance in the final scene, when the characters describe the sometimes-painful moments that take place in their lives following the events in the play. Such a mood shift could be jarring, but Forgette’s writing and the BLAST cast’s performances make the transition seamless.
One observation is that Incident could have been a more substantial play if Forgette had sprinkled these poignant moments throughout the two acts, but then it wouldn’t have been as funny.
And Incident is definitely funny: laugh out loud funny. You’ll have a good time.
IF YOU GO: BLAST (Bold Local Artists of the Southern Tier) will conclude its presentation of Incident at Our Lady of Perpetual Help this weekend (Sept. 29-Oct. 1) at Cider Mill Stage, 2 Nanticoke Ave., Endicott. All performances are at 7:30 p.m. Tickets at $28 (includes fee) can be purchased online at cidermillstage.com or by calling the box office at 607-321-9630.
