My parents were a tempestuous, sporadically violent, couple and so my brother, sister, and I grew up in a tense, sometimes chaotic household. I mention this because occasionally there appears a drama about little kids being raised by unstable adults and seeing it tends to hit me hard.
The first part of Make Believe, a new drama by Bess Wohl, regards a situation that to some extent reflects my childhood experiences. I found some of her story to be almost unbearably poignant.
Not that the troubled parents of the four Conlee children actually show up during Wohl’s 80-minute realistic drama, which initially unfolds over several days in the 1980s. The playwright focuses almost entirely upon Chris (Ryan Foust), Kate (Maren Heary), Addie (Casey Hilton), and Carl (Harrison Fox), respectively aged twelve, ten, seven, and five.
[Read Melissa Rose Bernardo’s ★★★★ review here.]
They have returned home from school to their playroom in the attic. Not only is their mother unaccountably absent, she even neglected to leave snacks.
As the brothers and sisters more or less amiably chatter, play games, tease each other, even study a little, they gradually mirror how their parents are not getting along together. A game of pretend house mimics a nasty scene at the dinner table. A Cabbage Patch doll’s head is banged on the floor. Kate fantasizes that she really is a long-lost daughter of Princess Grace of Monaco.
A series of brief scenes depict the afternoon fading into evening as the kids grow uneasy about their missing mom. Their father leaves an annoyed phone message on the answering machine that reveals him away on a business trip—but who’s the woman also heard on that message?
Then it’s the next day. No mom. The resourceful Chris gets everyone excused from school. Later he manages to snare some food from the local market. A day or so later, an adult finally arrives.
“We are not even going to remember most of this stuff when we grow up,” Chris promises his brother and sisters.
The remainder of the drama—one extended scene—happens in the attic during the present day as the Conlee siblings, now middle-aged, return home for a family event and manifest the behaviors and scars resulting from their childhood. The tone of the play turns ironic and eventually becomes rueful.
The adult characters, their conversation, and their revelations prove not especially compelling, however, and the story dwindles away.
Although Make Believe does not entirely achieve its potential, a good deal of the play remains effective and even touching. The initial mystery involving the absent mom creates tension and Wohl’s indirect portrait of an unhappy marriage is potent, as are the little games at which these kids play and the tender dreams they imagine.
Michael Greif, the director, capably stages a solid, well-acted production of the drama for Second Stage Theater. Greif cultivates believably natural performances from his four excellent young actors. In their credible depictions of the adult figures, Kim Fischer, Samantha Mathis, Susannah Flood, and Brad Heberlee do nicely by some lesser, at times surprisingly glib, material.
Fine visual support is provided by Emilio Sosa’s appropriate clothes and David Zinn’s realistic, detailed setting for a pleasant attic playroom. Ben Stanton’s lighting design aptly whiles away the hours. Bray Poor contributes some original music that lends a shimmering suggestion of memories being recalled.
Make Believe opened August 15, 2019, at Second Stage and runs through September 15. Tickets and information: 2st.com
