By Angela Dell
In the Keith Christeson Theater below the Pleasant Grove Library in Pleasant Grove, UT, magical things are happening with their current production of You Can’t Take it With You. It’s a relatively small stage with a very intimate feel while still exuding professionalism. No one who participates in a performance there would ever question whether the people involved in each production cared about its success. When I first arrived, I was greeted warmly by the directors Howard Little and Kathryn Little. When asked how they manage to both direct a show like this, they explained to me that Howard organizes the initial blocking and Kathryn (who works with the SCERA’s Acting Up program) works with the characters’ relationships and motivations. As Howard put it, he works from the outside in and she works from the inside out. They truly are a dynamic duo.
The set, costumes, hair, and makeup have a cohesiveness that speaks to the organization Tina Fontana managed with so many elements. This show is meant to feel busy and overwhelming. Fontana used the limited space wisely and created the havoc that exists while also giving the actors enough room to move around.
You Can’t Take It With You follows the Sycamore family in their original, creative outlook on life. They choose to live their lives doing the things they love with the people they love and manage to find fulfillment in that life. When Alice (Isabelle Purdie) comes home in love with her Wall Street employer’s son, Tony (Andrew Pingry), the parents must meet. With two very different worlds colliding, havoc ensues.
Martin Vanderhof (Dennis Purdie) is the voice of reason among his eccentric family (being a gentle eccentric himself.) This is Dennis’ 40th show with the PG Players making it quite a milestone for him. His ability to balance logic and gentleness is what sets him apart from the rest of the chaos on stage. This show is especially special to him as he is able to perform with his real grand-daughter Isabelle. Isabelle adds a sense of loving sarcasm to the role that makes the whole family feel unified. It would be easy for an actress to think that Alice, in fact, looks down on her family and thinks them less for their choice of lifestyle. Isabelle does not. She understands that although Alice is aware of her family’s eccentricities, she loves them for them. Her relationship with Pingry on stage is so honest and sincere, it feels as if not only are they in love, but they’re friends and like spending time with each other. I appreciate the effort they put into their characters’ relationship. Pingry’s personality as Tony shines through with his openness and sincerity.
Rheba (Kira Woodhouse) and Donald (Dallin Bradford) are portrayed as Irish immigrants that are the maid and handyman, respectively, of the Sycamore household. I appreciated the attention that went into that choice as Irish immigrants weren’t openly accepted in America during the latter part of the 1800s and early 1900s. It was often they were indentured servants or blue-collar workers and seen as people who were stealing American jobs. Their fit into this family works and you can see the obvious love that exists for them. Woodhouse and Bradford worked hard on their Irish dialects and their relationship on stage is endearing and delightful. Woodhouse’s sweet charm compliments Bradford’s child-like impishness to create a delightful relationship that is fun to watch.
Brenna Brown as Essie and Richard Dover as Ed are another charming duo. Between Brown’s upbeat, smiling personality and Dover’s quirky charm, they create a couple that has complete confidence and trust in each other and their family.
When the play begins, we see Penelope Sycamore (Debra Flink) busy at her typewriter. The entire time I watched her on stage, I couldn’t help but compare her to Mrs. Cunningham on the 1970s American sitcom Happy Days. She exudes motherliness while maintaining her own unique personality. It’s easy to see her love for her family, including her husband Paul Sycamore (Russ Card) who is both gentleness and child-like innocence with his passion for fireworks. His helper down in the basement Mr. De Pinna (Jeff Thompson) is a riot. Thompson is a complete ham who knows the kind of character Mr. De Pinna can be to get the audience to notice and care about his character as much as he does.
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Another trio of hams on the stage are found in Bolus Kolenkhov (Scott Healy), Gay Wellington (Julie Roundy), and the Grand Duchess Olga (Nanette Damron Bramwell). Roundy’s devotion to her character choices reminds me why I love the theater so much. She is a hot mess, on stage, and owns it. I’m sure I heard a lady about to have a heart-attack, she was laughing so hard. Healy and Bramwell do a magnificent job making their characters as ostentatious as their characters think they are. They really dig into the comedy that is found in a person taking themselves extremely seriously and it lands beautifully.
Mr. Kirby (Matthieu C. Kohl) and Mrs. Kirby (Nettie Miner) provide the perfect foil to the Sycamore family. Their righteous indignation and facial expressions provide the audience with further fodder to laugh. Their parts are so important because it allows us to see how the Sycamores exist in this world and eventually teach us what you can and cannot take with you in the end.
This show is a riot that will have you laughing as well as self-reflecting on whether you are spending your time on this earth wisely in seeking joy. The cast is dedicated, the crew is ingenious, I implore you to find time to go and watch PG Players’ production of You Can’t Take It With You.
Pleasant Grove Players presents You Can’t Take It With You By George S. Kaufman and
Moss Hart
Keith Christeson Theater, Pleasant Grove Library, 30 E Center St, Pleasant Grove, UT 84062
April 20-May 7, 2018 Monday, Thursday-Saturday 7:30 PM Matinee May 5 3:00 PM
Tickets $12; $11 for Seniors $1 less for Matinee
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You Can’t Take It With You Facebook Event Page
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