Por JEAN LOWERISON | Noticias de la zona alta<\/p>\n
Friendship is easy when life is easy. It\u2019s when life gets a little sticky wicket that relationships are tested.<\/p>\n
Lissette (Aleque Reid) is a spirited woman in her late 30s who has carefully guarded her independence. She\u2019s determined not to die leaving anything she wanted to do undone. But Lissette has just found out that she\u2019s looking death in the face.<\/p>\n
Playwright Melissa Ross\u2019 latest play \u201cThe Luckiest\u201d gives us a meditation on friendships, family and final exits. Part of La Jolla Playhouse\u2019s 2018 DNA New Work Series, \u201cThe Luckiest\u201d is directed by Jaime Casta\u00f1eda in its world premiere through July 28 at the Potiker Theatre.<\/p>\n
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The topic sounds a bit heavy, eh wot? But Lissette, who has always lived life in her own way, treats the diagnosis of a devastating, debilitating, always fatal disease \u2014 amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig\u2019s disease \u2014 the way she\u2019s handled the rest of her life: her way.<\/p>\n
Still, it\u2019s a good thing she met her best friend Peter (Reggie D. White) at that New York City bar years ago, and that he\u2019s willing to spend time with her that he might otherwise use in the search for a boyfriend.<\/p>\n
Lissette\u2019s mother Cheryl (Deirdre Lovejoy), the third character in this triad, rushes over from her Massachusetts home. Cheryl has a heavy Boston-tinged accent and seems to shout more than she talks. She wants Lissette to move out of her fifth-floor New York walkup to Cheryl\u2019s ground-floor condo in Woburn, about 10 miles from Boston.<\/p>\n
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Lissette turns that offer down flat. But she does come up with another idea: she\u2019ll decide when it\u2019s time, rent a place in Vermont and throw a big Death Party, as Peter calls it. Why Vermont? Because suicide is legal there.<\/p>\n
This all sounds a lot grimmer than it plays. My complaint isn\u2019t about the topic, it\u2019s about the sound system at the Potiker that always leaves me wishing they\u2019d mic the actors. And with some of the dialogue, which is redundant if not downright repetitive.<\/p>\n
No complaints about the acting, though, other than the aforementioned noise level from Lovejoy\u2019s Cheryl. But she creates a credible, concerned and pushy mom.<\/p>\n
White, a welcome returnee from previous Playhouse productions, embues Peter<\/p>\n
with humor and concern.<\/p>\n
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Reid is excellent as take-charge Lissette, who has lived in her own way. She\u2019s left Peter with a \u201clucky\u201d bicentennial penny and now she\u2019ll exit in her own way.<\/p>\n
We should all be so lucky.<\/p>\n