“Other Desert Cities,” Lakeside Little Theatre’s hugely enjoyable last play of its 51st season, opened on March 25 and runs through April 3.
Director Russell Mack must be commended on an outstanding job of bringing a very complex and captivating play to the stage.
“Other Desert Cities” appeals to both the head and the heart. Author Jon Robin Baitz uses an intense family drama to raise some major debatable issues. It is both wily and gut wrenching as it exposes some devastating secrets that tear a family apart.
The play tells the story of the fictional Wyeth family — led at the top by a mother and father highly regarded in old Hollywood circles and admired by Republicans for their service to and friendship with Ronald and Nancy Reagan in their heyday.
Dysfunctional family dramas are a well-traversed territory nowadays, but Baitz has laced the script with humor, wit and political commentary (setting it in 2004 after the Iraq War is underway). “Other Desert Cities” contains sharp dialogue and an affective premise: The grown-up daughter, Brooke, beautifully portrayed by Debra Bowers, is a writer who has suffered a nervous breakdown, and has just written a memoir about her life, her parents, and their role in the tragic loss of her brother. But she has not told her mother, Polly Wyeth, excellently performed by Candace Luciano, or her father Lyman, authentically portrayed by Peter Luciano, of the plans to publish the memoir until the publication date nears … while she is on a Christmas visit back home.
Among many other questions raised in the play, Baitz asks whether Brooke has a greater obligation to her family (who saved her during her darkest moments) or to the truth and to her work as a writer. One of my favorite moments was when Lyman showed us how good he was at dying back when he was a successful movie star.
This season, LLT audiences were gifted with two unusually fabulous set designs – Rob Stupple’s set for “Good People” and Mack’s design for “Other Desert Cities.” We are so fortunate to have such talent here at Lakeside and a fabulous construction crew headed by Richard Bansbach.
In the program, Mack noted the theatrical adage that “directing is 80/90 percent casting,” meaning that casting is most important to the success of the production.
The casting “Other Desert Cities” was excellent. In addition to the aforementioned players, Damyn Young turned in a strong performance as Trip Wyeth, son and brother of Brooke, and Collette Clavadetscher was excellent as Polly’s sister just out of rehab.
The stage manager was Leslie DeCarl, assistant stage manager Rob Stupple, producer Patteye Simpson, lighting Shellie and Neal Checkoway and Alan Bowers, set painting Alan Bowers and Elizabeth Reinheimer, lighting operator Kevin Leitch, sound and projections J.E. Jack, costumes Johanna Clark, props Sharon Lowry and Carolyn Cothran, makeup Maureen Renz and Beryel Dorscht, wigs Audrey Zikmund, backstage crew Ruth Varnerr Smith and Sandra Murr.