By Donald H. Harrison
EL CAJON, California — When Jews comfort someone whose family member or close friend has died, we often use the phrase, “May his/ her memory be for a blessing.” We hope that after the immediate shock of her death wears off, and her husband thinks of her, he will think of the good, morally uplifting examples she set in her life. We hope that he will remember the pleasant times with her. We anticipate his future enjoyment reflecting on her special sayings, the way she smiled, her endearing idiosyncrasies. Remembering her thus will be a blessing in his life.
To Gillian On Her 37th Birthday, written by Michael Brady and directed by Beth Duggan, poses to audiences at Grossmont College’s Stagehouse Theatre a disturbing question: what if the memory of the wife feels like a blessing only occasionally, but more often it feels like torture? What if the husband is so assailed by “what if” and “if only” questions that he becomes psychologically immobilized, and in response cocoons himself in a routine of running along an island beach during the day, and looking at the night stars?
If David (Frank Remiatte) lived alone in the beautiful, but memory-filled beach house he had purchased after his wife’s accidental death, his melancholy and self-pity would have been destructive only of himself. However, he and Gillian (whose spirit is played by Josalyn Dietrich) had a daughter, Rachel, (Megan Mattix) who now, two years after Gillian’s fatal accident, is a high school senior who cannot understand why the physical loss of her mother also has deprived her of an emotionally-engaged father.
When the play opens, Rachel has recently returned from an extended visit to the mainland home of her maternal Aunt Esther (Jeanette Thomas) and Uncle Paul (Brian Rickel). Hoping to shake David from his emotional paralysis, this threesome has cooked up a surprise for him in the form of a visit from Kevin (Stephanie Botelho), a divorced acquaintance who is very much a woman, but whose parents gave her a boy’s name.
Kevin is patient, kind-hearted, and compassionate. Although she had been led to believe this was just to be a fun weekend at the beach with the possibility of romance with a man she once had observed from afar, she learns that this also will be the second anniversary of his wife’s death. Herself the mother of a young child (who is staying that weekend with Kevin’s ex-husband), Kevin astutely observes the family’s dynamics. She becomes a friend and confidante to Rachel, and sets about overcoming the hostility of Rachel’s friend Cindy (Safiya Quinley), who, in a hopeless, stick-out-your-tongue-at-the-opponent sort of way, has imagined herself a rival for David’s affections.
In that Uncle Paul and Aunt Esther are strongly played by Grossmont College theatre arts faculty members Brian Rickel and Jeannette Thomas, the disparity in performance experience between the actors in the lead roles and those in supporting roles was the reverse of what one might normally expect. So dynamic are these two teachers on the stage that they, rather than their students in the larger roles, were the ones who, when taking their bows, received the loudest cheers from the appreciative audience.
Paul is a big and booming fellow, always telling a joke, always trying to lighten the mood, so he doesn’t have to deal with painful subjects. His ways are the opposite of David’s but both in a sense are hiding from their emotions. To their great regret, Paul and Esther are childless, and while David mourns for one whom he has lost; they mourn for the one whom they never met. When Esther prods David to remember the impact his self-pity is having on Rachel, he snaps that she has no right to tell him how to be a parent, as she never has been one herself! When Jeannette as Esther broke down and cried, we in the audience felt like crying with her, so powerful was her portrayal.
Yet, we also have good reason to laud the skills of actors Remiatte and Mattix for their meaningful depictions of the multi-sided relationship between a father and daughter; Quinley for her interpretation of an awkward, good-hearted teen, and Dietrich for her ability to play a woman who is a memory. Accolades especially go to Botelho–and to writer Brady and director Duggan–for the way in which the character Kevin became so important, and such a positive force for healing, for so many of the characters.
Hearty compliments as well go to Craig Everett who, working with a small stage, produced a rolling beach in front of a charming two-story home. Most of the play’s action takes place on this single set, either on the beach or on the veranda of the cottage. An exception is a time when Rachel and Kevin take a walk that brings them into the aisles of the theatre, which increased the audience’s sense of intimacy with the characters.
For a thought-provoking play, I can enthusiastically recommend To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday, which plays on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays in a limited engagement ending Nov. 23rd. The box-office phone is (619) 644-7234.
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World, and has been serving in an interim capacity as director of college and community relations at Grossmont College. He may be contacted at donald.harrison@gcccd.edu