The expansive set fills the Wharton Center’s Pasant stage with period furniture on a platforms set against artistic renderings of blueprints from actual homes built in the 1950s. (Scenic Designer Kasee Arnett ) The costumes of the two young couples are at first covered by tan, sewing-pattern pieces, which are shed through the play, as these couples stray from the prescribed life patterns. (Costumes, Zech Saenz)
This entertaining satire is told in the style of “social guidance films” of the era and contrasts the prescribed marital bliss with the reality of broken myths. Arrive early to enjoy the 50s media screen (Alison Dobbins) including a real film on the career opportunities for women studying home economics. The projection screen is an effective period-scene-setter throughout, and also features video of the Narrator, and occasionally other actors, unmasked. (All do very well onstage projecting and understandable with masks.)
Christopher Eastland is perfect as the pleasant, authoritative Narrator, never straying from “the style” even when delivering some jarring pronouncements to the adorable 9-year-old Clara Lampe, a pawn in the not-entirely-happily-ever-after story. Andi Nash, Sebastian Barnett, Stefan Funderburke and Joie Raymond bring to life couples trying to follow — and/or break — “the rules.”
I had seen some publicity pictures of an interracial couple and thought this play might be about civil rights/mixed marriages, but it is obvious early on that “Mason” is “The Football Guy” not “the Black Guy” and color-blind casting works well. There is a brief reference to race attitudes of the time when adopting kids “from AFRICA?!” is discussed.
Director Rob Roznowski states in the press release, “The play follows two young couples from courtship to marriage and explores the complications of how gendered roles impact married life. It is set in a time when the nation was returning from World War II and ‘The American Dream’ seemed in reach. History looks back on this time with the fondness of how Americans ‘should’ be living. Many still believe in this myth, despite it being a homogenous, patriarchal, homophobic, and white reality.”
Tickets are $23.50 for general admission, $21.50 for MSU faculty/staff and seniors, and $13.50 for students — available online at http://whartoncenter.com, at the Wharton Center box office, or by calling 1-800-WHARTON.
Audience members must remain masked throughout.
Remaining Performance Dates and Times
• *Sunday, October 17 at 2 p.m.
• Tuesday, October 19 at 7:30 p.m.
• Wednesday, October 20 at 7:30 p.m.
• **Thursday, October 21 at 7:30 p.m.
• Friday, October 22 at 8 p.m.
• Saturday, October 23 at 2 p.m.
• Saturday, October 23 at 8 p.m.
• Sunday, October 24 at 2 p.m.
*Director Pre-Show Discussion Sunday, October 17 at 1:15 p.m.
**Post-show discussion with Patrick Arnold, Advisor for the MSU Center on Gender in Global Context, on Thursday, October 21 following the performance.
For more information on the show and other MSU Department of Theatre productions, visit:https://theatre.msu.edu/productions/21-22/.