By Charlene Baldridge
SDUN Theatre Critic
According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, the meaning of “eleemosynary” is “of, related to, or supported by charity.” It’s one of many words spelled and pronounced by the play’s smarty-pants teenage protagonist, Echo. It’s a word Echo’s mother, Artie (short for Artemis), believes is among those words “meant to be spelled and not spoken.”
If Echo is a spelling bee champion—and she is triumphant—it’s partly Artie’s fault. She coached Echo from the safe remove of the telephone despite her daughter’s pleas to come to her. It’s also the fault of Dorothea, who has raised Echo ever since Artie abdicated Dorothea’s household and single motherhood to become a research scientist.
Regardless of their situation and prickly personalities, the Wesbrook women are brainy, stubborn and self-directed women who have difficulties relating as mothers and daughters. The ease of loving skips a generation, and Dorothea is dying, having suffered a massive stroke. She cannot speak, but her granddaughter hears her nonetheless.
Director Chelsea Whitmore and her magnificent company—Rachael VanWormer (Echo), Julie Anderson Sachs (Artie) and Dorothea (Rhona Gold)—illuminate every nuance of these human beings so fully realized by Blessing.
The play presents itself in a series of scenes that are mostly direct address, as if the speaker is reflecting on events that have brought her to a place beyond denouement, a place toward which we move. Dorothea’s pronouncement regarding her present condition is one of the play’s most delightful moments, along with the woman’s determination that Artie will fly. Fly she does, but not in the way Dorothea intended. Ultimately Echo’s tenacity, determination and forgiveness exemplify the meaning of “Eleemosynary.” Any woman who’s been a mother, sister or daughter will understand. So will some men. The playwright, the director and these actors capture it thoroughly, facilitated by the gentle humor of costume designer Jennifer Mah, the atmospheric lighting of Karin Filijan, the subtle sound design of Matt Lescault-Wood and the otherworldly world of scenic designer Angelica Ynfante.
Blessing heads the playwriting program at Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts. He has been much produced locally, including his affecting “Thief River” by Diversionary Theatre; one of his most recent, the world premiere of “The Scottish Play” by La Jolla Playhouse; and one of his most enigmatic, “A Body of Water,” seen in a splendid production at the Old Globe. The Playhouse also produced, among other Blessing plays, the world premiere of “Two Rooms” as well as “Going to St. Ives” and Blessing’s best-known work, “A Walk in the Woods.” The Profile Theatre of Portland, Ore., is devoting its 2010-2011 season to Blessing’s plays.
“Eleemosynary”
Through September 26
Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.
Sundays, 2 p.m.
Tickets: $22-$25
Moxie Theatre
6663 El Cajon Blvd.
Rolando
moxietheatre.com
(858) 598-7620
