Eleemosynary the Premiere Offering From Spacetime Theatre

Eleemosynary is the first offering from a new theatre company Spacetime Theatre and it is an auspicious beginning to be sure. Written by Lee Blessing in 1985 nearly 40 years ago, it was new to me and felt as timely and relevant as anything I’ve seen written in the last five years. The big question is whether this is a comedy or a drama or the all encompassing “dramedy”? I laughed quite a bit, but there were also moments that were very powerful and not meant to be laughed about. It’s a story told across decades in the life of three women in the Wesbrook family, the grandmother Dorothea, her daughter Artie, and Artie’s daughter Echo. Dorothea is intentionally eccentric, so much so that her daughter Artie wants nothing to do with her, she is however raising Artie’s daughter Echo who has won the National Spelling Bee and is something of a genius. The truth is all of these women are very intelligent though some lack an emotional intelligence to rather their intellect. It’s a story about the relationships between mothers, daughters, and grandmothers and the ways in which they can sometimes hurt each other deeper than they could every have guessed. Their intelligence, part of which is reflected in they way in which Artie and Echo’s memories work account for why the wounds of past injuries never heal. It’s a very well written script that leaps forwards and backwards in time without ever leaving the audience untethered to the characters timeline. It reveals itself at the perfect pace always giving us the next piece of their story, the next explanation just when we are ready to receive it.

Directed by Spacetime Theatre’s Executive Artistic Director Christopher Kehoe against a scenic design by M Curtis Grittner which is abstract and gives us a sense of flowing in and out of the narrative stream. Kehoe has the actors coming on and off stage constantly from all corners of the theater as their characters come in and out of moments from their memories. The cast is really something special and look as if they really were from the same family. As Dorothea, Katie Tuminelly times her more outrageous lines perfectly to catch the audience off guard and forcing spontaneous guffaws. Tara Borman, whom I keep seeing playing young women who have unplanned pregnancies, has the most grounded role, but also the most closed off emotionally, while simultaneously being the most fragile of the three. It’s a tricky role, at times unsympathetic, but by the end she has shown us under the surface of the character and we have come to understand her issues. Last, but by no means least, August Chaffin as Echo proves to be an actor to keep an eye on. I love coming across young actors for the first time knowing that I’ll get to see them take on new roles over the coming years. Chaffin, is fantastic as Echo and I can’t wait to see what they do next.

Eleemosynary runs through June 23rd at the Gremlin Theatre for more information and to purchase tickets go to https://www.spacetimetheatre.com/shows/eleemosynary/

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