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For Pete's Sake
NORTHERN LIGHTS ...Jim McElenney gives the right dose of obnoxiousness to his debonair character, fumbling with cigarettes to assuage the stress of his thankless job and mumbling in his chin to cover his mistakes. Darryl Hovis paints an accurate portrait of Peter Junior's anger. The highlight of Mary Alyce Kania's performance as Candace, Peter Junior's wife, is the realistic suicide discovery scene. The cast is rounded out by Stephen Lawrence, a gentle Peter Senior, and Kelli Tager as the aggressive reporter who casts her net on Pete Junior. The script moves at a quick pace through the compact
piece, throwing clever existential lifelines disguised as humorous gems
to prod us into questioning the humanity of a God as frail and faulty
as us in his foibles and failures, interweaving profundity into lightheartedness
in an irresistible mix.
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OC WEEKLY The other week, while standing on the lip of Canyon de Chelly in northern Arizona, pondering whether jumping over the edge would fill my soul with exquisite exhilaration or just bowel-releasing terror, I noticed a plaque describing the enormous rock structure that loomed across the canyon. Spider Rock is holy to the Navajos. It's home to the Spider Woman, the goddess who taught the people to weave. It suddenly dawned on me that the skill of weaving isn't confined to the making of blankets or shawls. It's also the wisdom we gain in terms of how we approach the tapestry of our life, what threads we hold as sacred, what strands we overlook or take for granted. And just like Minerva's owl, who doesn't know a goddamn thing until dusk has set in, we have no idea how that tapestry is really going to look until we have a moment to reflect on the course of what we called a life, catalog our mistakes and reference our blessings. There's something of that in J.R. Sussman's new play, "For Pete's Sake," receiving its world-premiere production at The Chance Theater; the fragility of life, the interconnectedness of all things and the way that the dreams we hold most dear might keep us from enjoying this moment. Peter Thornton Sr. (Stephen Lawrence) is a good-natured, struggling actor who is suddenly turned into flesh-colored asphalt while trying to merge onto the freeway. He leaves behind a wife who is pregnant with their child. Peter unexpectedly winds up eating a meal with God (a well-rounded Jim McElenney), who is neither all-powerful nor all-knowing. For reasons lost on this viewer, God gives Peter a chance to help shape the life of his unborn son. Peter asks God to give Peter Jr. everything that Peter Sr. didn't achieve: fame, fortune, glory. He wants his son to be an actor. God consents but with a caveat: the son will be plagued. Turns out Peter Thornton Jr. (Darryl Hovis) is a great actor-an Academy Award winner with a beautiful, supportive wife (a vibrant Mary Alyce Kania) and a child of his own. But through a horrible bit of oversight, tragedy befalls Peter Jr., and the cycle begins again. Sussman's play could stand a bit of intellectual ballast
(if you haven't read it yet, look at Tom Stoppard's "Arcadia").
It's sweetly packaged fare with a few brutal moments. But while it lacks
style, there's no arguing with its earnestness; this is a play set firmly
in simple, daily happiness. In this play, the meek truly do inherit the
earth. It's a wonderful sentiment, quite healthy and healing and probably
why Hindi yogis don't go on killing sprees. But in this society, in this
era, such talk is horse shit-and why "For Pete's Sake" isn't
exactly cutting-edge or volatile theater. Few among us want to be ordinary.
We all want to be special and golden and revered and hailed as extraordinary.
Sussman's great gift is that she makes balance and the path of least resistance
sound plausible. Although Tom Hardy's drab production renders the play
visually lifeless and nearly undercuts some of the more eloquent parts
of her piece, Sussman's point survives: shit not only happens, but it
also happens for a reason. The best that we can hope for is to catch a
glimpse of the way our life has unfolded to appreciate why things happened
the way they did-and to truly understand when to get the fuck out of life's
way and accept loss forever. As the man said, life is what happens while
you and I are busy making other plans.
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LOS ANGELES TIMES ...At the hub of the Newport Beach writer's play is Peter (Stephen Lawrence), a failed actor who's introduced right after he's died in a car accident. God (Jim McElenney) has taken time from his schedule battling terrorism and imploding stars to let Peter know how tough being a deity can be--and to decide what kind of life Peter's son (Darryl Hovis) will have. ...The point is that we should accept what fate hands us and that every great thing comes with a price, so be careful what you choose... Anyway, Peter's choice gives Peter Jr. a super life as a famous actor, with pots of money, a lovely wife (Mary Alyce Kania) and infant son. But the perfect picture cracks eventually and Peter Jr. falls into depression, leading to tragedy and a later confab with God that once again underscores Sussman's blurry metaphysics. The play is certainly well-intentioned and even has effective
passages, usually when Lawrence easily reveals Peter's gentleness... As
for the acting, it's pretty good under Tom Hardy's relaxed direction.
Lawrence and McElenney are the most persuasive, but the rest of the cast
also does what it can with the material.
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