This play is based on histories
of many young women who, in the 50’s and 60’s, conceived out of wedlock and
were forced to surrender the baby for adoption. In Louisa Hill’s poignant drama
pregnant Dee, age 16, is forced to give
up the baby that is the focus of all her love.
Deciding what is really best for their daughter, and determined to correct
the situation so no one will ever know, her parents send her away. The social workers, and the nuns in the Home, have no feeling
for the damage being done. The teenage girl goes back to school, while the baby
is sent off into the blissful prospect of a perfect life.
It’s an indictment of our
society that what happens through the years bears no resemblance to the utopian
dream of adoption. When we meet Corie the abandoned child, 25 years later, she
has been shuttled from rejecting families to foster homes with no knowledge of
her birth mother’s pain. When the two do finally connect the drama of
misunderstanding threatens to rip them apart again.
The compassionate direction
by Tony Abatemarco inspires deeply moving performances by Corryn Cummins (Dee)
and Michaela Slezak (Corie). Adrian Gonzalez smoothly transforms from stern
father to eager boyfriends to cool seducer, while Amy Harmon matches him as pompous
mother, practical social worker, kindly nun. Marylin Winkle on cello adds haunting
melancholy sound.
Produced by Gary Grossman and Skylight Theatre Company. Photos by Ed Krieger
At Skylight Theatre, 1816
North Vermont, Los Feliz, through May 14. Tickets: (213) 761-7061 or http://SkylightTix.com
Also reviewed in the May
issue of NOT BORN YESTERDAY
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