What happens when a grieving young widow starts to explore questions about her family’s past? This is the somber scenario that opens Stages latest afternoon offering.
The all-female cast bring four different characters to life in a small antique and book store in Ohio in this play by Tiina Mittler. Action begins after the funeral for heart-broken Laurel’s (Candice M. Clasby) husband, Jack. Friends and relations attempt comforting her but the strong willed young woman can only keep herself motivated by thinking and observing.
Eventually she ends up turning towards her mother, Maeghan (Cleta Cohen), who it turns out has some experience of her own. Laurel wants to know more about her father, who died in the war. She also wants to know if she will one day be able to recover from Jack’s death as well as Maeghan has from Laurel’s father’s death in the war.
Old antique boxes hold long lost secrets in this play about trust, family, and subterfuge. Grace (Judy Jones lends great gravitas to this role) plays the childhood friend whose own daughter Laci (Tanya Raisa Mironowski) is pregnant. Andrea Freeman directs this play with lots of emotional twists and turns. Expect to see more interesting plays from this talented writer.
"Subterfuge" at Stages
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