OBSERVER: Other Desert Cities
In 2011, American playwright Jon Robin Baitz wrote Other Desert Cities around the lives of an affluent Republican family in Palm Springs, California, during the Presidency of Republican Geoge W Bush, in 2003.
It is Christmas Eve and the Wyeths – Lyman and Polly – are committed Republicans and have invited their son and daughter to their Palm Springs home for Christmas.
Both siblings are living their own lives away from the parents; son Trip, a Hollywood reality show producer, and daughter Brooke, a writer who has bought with her a manuscript, her second novel, that threatens to expose family secrets and damage the reputation of the family name and the parents’ standing – within the community and in particular as Republicans.
While the play revolves around Brooke (Jen Bush) and her plans to publish the novel, it is the domineering, sharp-tongued former screenwriter mother Polly (Lindy Yeates) that sets the tone for keeping the manuscript under wraps, while father Lyman (Phil Lambert) once a movie matinee star and now an Ambassador, weighs in considering the consequences of the release of the manuscript.
Giving some relief to the built up tension throughout the dialogue is Polly’s sister Silda (Paula McDonald), a reformed alcoholic, although sneaking a whisky and a smoke has her reasons for publishing the manuscript bringing to the fore a long held family secret.
Level headed son Trip (Liam Gillespie) was strong when telling his sister how selfish and self-centred she is, that most of the so-called events in her manuscript are based on her memory when she was 10 years old.
Heidelberg Theatre Company has an extraordinary wide stage and Director/Set designer Gaetano Santo made full use of its width and depth while providing for a very large functional living room with a distant mountain range backdrop, at times we needed to turn our heads from side to side as if at a tennis match, to follow some of the dialogue. There were instances where the actors needed to be closer when having robust discussions, rather than metres apart.
Given those comments though, it flowed well to an unexpected ending.
Performance Season: Until September 20
Venue: Heidelberg Theatre, 36 Turnham Ave., Rosanna.
Bookings: htc.org.au
Review by Graeme McCoubrie
Pictured: Liam Gillespie (Trip) and Jen Bush (Brooke) in Other Desert Cities
Photo: David Belton