THEATER REVIEW : ‘Independence’ Offers Compelling Look at Troubled Family

One need not have seen the recent La Lee Blessing’s “A Walk in the Woods” to appreciate his “Independence” at the Bowery Theatre, through Dec. 6. But seeing the first play does add immeasurably to one’s sense of the playwright’s range and emotional depth in the second.

In “A Walk in the Woods,” Blessing was able to take what could have been a didactic, cliched dialogue between a Soviet and an American arms negotiator and make their interaction profoundly human and compelling.

In “Independence,” the playwright sinks his teeth into the rich emotional meat of a troubled family and, even in this oft-worked area, manages to carve out fully realized characters who surprise, provoke and trouble the mind long after the show is over.

“Independence,” which takes place in Independence, Iowa, is about nothing less than emotional independence and the steep price that is often paid for it. With Ginny-Lynn Safford’s intelligent and sensitive direction of a talented and inspired cast, the play comes across clearly as a coming-of-age story that has nothing to do with age and everything to do with the readiness of the heart.

The charismatic center of the play is Evelyn, the unstable mother of three daughters whom she has attached to her apron strings with varying gluey combinations of guilt, timidity, anger and need.

At the outset, Jo, the middle daughter, seems to be the one most bruised and bound to her mother. In the very first scene she appears in a neck brace, the result of being pushed out the window by Evelyn in an evidently characteristic fit of pique. But even when her older sister, Kess, comes home in response to Jo’s distress call and offers Jo the opportunity of moving in with her, Jo turns her sister down flatly because she feels her mother needs her.

Thus Jo and Kess begin the first two-step in a tense and complicated little familial dance. Initially, it looks as if Kess is trying to cut in on Jo and Evelyn. But later, as the mother rises to the challenge and pleasure of having her eldest under her roof, Evelyn tries to cut in on Jo and Kess.

The youngest daughter, Sherry, is the sassy truth teller who cuts down everyone rather than cutting in on anyone. After all, as she is the first to admit with a smile, “meaningless relationships” are more her style.

As Sherry, Laurena Allan gets a lot of the funniest lines, without sacrificing glimpses of the pain that prompts them. Kimberly Kierulff moves from her initial complacency as the self-sacrificing Jo to a tormented acknowledgment of herself as a woman with choices--none of which bring peace of mind.

The most riveting dynamic, however, is the one navigated by Ann Richardson as Evelyn and Ann Elizabeth Lyon as Kess. Underneath the vibrating wire that is Evelyn, Richardson captures the loneliness, cunning, fear and, yes, love that keep her alternately pushing her children away and pulling them too close.

As Kess, Lyon subtly portrays the brittleness of her hard-won independence. Almost chilly in her seemingly invulnerable self-confidence, one can almost hear the slow, quiet drip of melting ice as her mother turns on the warmth she denied her daughter for so long.

The emotional battlefield--in which the gift of a cameo can detonate like a bomb--seems all the more terrible for taking place in the worn, safe-looking environment of an expansive family room and dinette. Nicely designed by Tom Phelps, who also did an effective job with the lighting, the set, dotted by family portraits and bronzed baby shoes, begins in the hallway leading to the theater and includes a back, screened room and side exits that suggest a much larger home.

The costumes, by John-Bryan Davis, are similarly on target with telling details, from the perpetual run in Sherry’s dark stockings to the faded little-girl look to whatever Jo wears.

Lawrence Czoka’s original music adds to the interesting flavors in the pot with an intriguing mix of gentle folk rhythms and almost religious organ sounds.

“Independence” is a handsome production--and an auspicious beginning for Safford as the new associate artistic director of the Bowery Theatre.

“INDEPENDENCE” By Lee Blessing. Director, Ginny-Lynn Safford. Set and lighting, Tom Phelps. Original music by Lawrence Czoka. Costumes, John-Bryan Davis. Hair, Kim Dotson. Stage manager, Morgan Weir. With Kimberly Kierulff, Ann Elizabeth Lyon, Laurena Allan and Ann Richardson. At 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 7 p.m. Sunday, through Dec. 6. At the Bowery Theatre, 480 Elm St., San Diego.