Katie Forgette’s play “Incident at Our Lady of Perpetual Help” is not what you’d initially expect after you enter North Coast Repertory Theatre for a performance.
Scenic designer Marty Burnett’s meticulously detailed 1973-era, working-class Catholic American household gives you the feeling you’re in for a period piece that might be about faith, family or even women’s liberation. Then 19-year-old central character Linda O’Shea bounds onstage and throws the audience for a heck of a loop.
“Incident,” which opened Saturday in a very funny, clever and well-cast production directed by Jenny Sullivan, is indeed about family, faith and women’s lib. But it’s also a playfully meta twist on the classic conventions of theatrical memory tales.
Linda, played by the warm and engaging Samantha Gorjanc, speaks directly to, and interacts with, the audience, explaining that memory tales change with time and perspective (so … the truth is highly flexible). What the audience is about to see is her own faded but affectionate memories of a tumultuous time in the family’s lives.
The O’Sheas are a family on the cusp of change. Patriarch Mike O’Shea is gruff, conservative and hard-working mechanic. Mom Josephine (or “Jo”) is an overworked but loving housewife. Linda is a brainy and secretly liberated college student on her way to Stanford University. And 13-year-old daughter Becky is a wannabe teen detective. Sharing their home is Jo’s sister Terri, who has recently separated from her husband.
When Jo begs her no-nonsense daughter Linda to give little sis Becky a lecture on the birds and bees, their very frank (and very funny) discussion gets back to the parish priest, and the family’s good standing in the church is suddenly at stake. This “incident” is just one of many that will rock the family that week.
Besides Linda’s frequent asides to the audience and different characters begging for their own monologues, there’s also an amusing casting twist in this play. Versatile actor Tom Dugan not only plays family patriarch Mike, but also the stern priest, Father Lovett, as well as the nosy church employee Betty.
Erin Noel Grennan is wonderfully understated as Jo, who keeps up appearances but is straining to keep her overflowing emotions in check. Shana Wride is wise and wry as aunt Terri, a liberal woman seeking more joy and autonomy in her life. And Abbi Hoffpauir has a sweet, youthful innocence as Becky.
“Incident” features lighting by Matthew Novotny, costumes by Elisa Benzoni and sound by Evan Eason. The play, which runs two hours with intermission, has a brief scene with grown-up language about menstruation and sex, so it may not be suited for pre-teens.
Describing “Incident” isn’t easy because the playwright has amusingly disassembled the classic style of theater that North Coast Rep is known for producing. Yes, it is a family story set in the 1970s. But it’s also so much more.
‘Incident at Our Lady of Perpetual Help’
When: 8 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays. Through Nov. 24
Where: North Coast Repertory Theatre, 987 Lomas Santa Fe Drive, Solana Beach
Tickets: $60-$74
Phone: 858-481-1055
Online: northcoastrep.org
Originally Published: