PowPac Resurrects ‘Love Among the Ruins’

By Eva Trieger

POWAY, California –Last Saturday night I was witness to one of the finest productions ever put on by PowPac Community Theatre.  I know, I know, I often have high praise for this small gem in our midst, but this show really has the right stuff!

This very clever courtroom drama-romance was an amazing stage adaptation and tackles the thorny issues of love, lust, companionship and the confusion that sometimes cloud judgment or define lives.

Aging actress, wealthy widow, Jessica Medlicott (Linda Englund), is drawn into a lawsuit by a much younger lover, nay, her fiance (!), a Naval officer, Alfred Pratt (Vincent Bossone) with whom she had a brief, misguided relationship. Who best to defend her?  Her ex-lover and perhaps true soulmate, the well-respected barrister, Sir Arthur Granville-Jones (Lou Slocum). Really?  After a steamy romance, she left him at the train station, with an apparently hollow promise of her devotion which he has never forgotten.

Following this marvelous evening, I felt compelled to watch the 1975 film version of the story. I am serious when I say that Sir Laurence Olivier and Katharine Hepburn did not hold a candle to PowPac’s Lou Slocum and Linda Englund.  PowPac’s production was much more authentic and credible.  Englund, portrayed a still-beautiful former starlet with regal bearing. Her exchanges with George (Raymond Lynch), her loyal servant, Hermione Davis (Amy Dell) and the defendant’s lawyer, Sir John Francis Divine (Lee Price) were all deliberate and often coquettish.  All of this supports the acting ability of the character and the actress.

There were a number of standout actors in this production, and I don’t want to miss out on congratulating any of them. Though a relatively minor part, I loved the bailiff (Aion Harrison).  It was clear he was having a blast inhabiting the body of the snarky constable and did a masterful job exploring his accent.  His interjections were as delightful as his facial expressions and body language.

Fanny Pratt (Connie Terwiilliger) played the devoted, status-grabbing mother who wanted her boy to marry up.  Her insistence that the couple were “lovey dovey” and that age was never an issue revealed her obvious agenda.  She wanted her boy set up for life.  Alfred Pratt (Vincent Bossone) did an admirable job of being in love with the woman who jilted him and displayed just the right level of unctuousness and libido-driven desire to consummate the marriage.

Hats off to the director, Julia Smith and the producer, Lynn Wolsey and Executive Producer, Linda Englund, for gifting PowPac’s audiences with such a fantastic rendition of a great story and allowing us to explore what happens when we open ourselves to examination. Humans are a tricky breed.  We do not always behave in ways that make sense to the mind, but so often, act in ways that only resonate with the heart.

Love Among the Ruins runs through August 17th. Tickets may be purchased at boxoffice@powpac.org or by phone at 858.679.8085.

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Trieger is a freelance writer specializing in the coverage of the arts.