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Regional Reviews: Washington, D.C. Appropriate Also see Susan's reviews of Eddie Izzard in the Tragedy of Hamlet and As You Like It
The three adult siblings have gathered to clear out and sell a house where none of them lived: their father spent most of his time in Washington and the family only visited during the summer. He was a man respected by his family and his peers, which is why Frank, who now calls himself Franz (Jamie Smithson), Toni (Kimberly Gilbert), and Bo (Cody Nickell) are shocked by some of the keepsakes they unearth in the cleaning process. Director Jason Loewith has molded his actors into a tight ensemble, headed by longtime DC actors Gilbert and Nickell. The action takes place around 2011 and the siblings haven't spent a lot of time together for many years: Bo lives in New York with his wife Rachael (Dina Thomas) and children Cassidy (Kirsten Cocks, alternating with Ruby Spencer) and Ainsley (David Snyder, alternating with Bennett Johnstone); Toni, divorced and the mother of Rhys (Cole Alex Edelstein), has been trying to take care of the estate on her own from her home in Atlanta; and Franz has fought his way through difficult times and found some peace with his impassioned but naïve hippie girlfriend River (Brigid Wallace Harper). All members of the cast, including the youngest, give dead-on performances as they excavate the history around them. The adult children know that the house predates the Civil War: Franz tells River that the property includes two cemeteries, a well-tended one for family members and a long-abandoned plot for enslaved workers. The family's tensions build and grow as they uncover hints that their father might not have been the enlightened man they knew and loved. (Rachael, who is Jewish, already had her suspicions.) Bey has incorporated an astonishing amount of detail into the setting: period-appropriate portraits cover the walls, and appliances, piles of old magazines, and taxidermied deer heads clutter the space. However, there's an additional dimension that comes through in Max Doolittle's lighting design, which shifts from ordinary to uncanny and back, and Matthew M. Neilson's sound design. Appropriate runs through April 26, 2026, at Olney Theatre Center, Mulitz-Gudelsky Theatre Lab, 2001 Olney-Sandy Spring Road, Olney MD. For tickets and information, please call 301-924-3400 or visit www.olneytheatre.org. By Branden Jacobs-Jenkins Cast: |
