[NoHo Arts District, CA] – A NoHo Arts theatre review of The Victory Theatre Center’s Faithless – a world premiere by playwright-in-residence Jon Klein, directed by Maria Gobetti running through April 14.
The Victory Theatre Center has been a mainstay of the Los Angeles theatre scene for decades. Under the inspiring leadership of Maria Gobetti and the late Tom Ormeny, it has been the originating theatre for so many brilliant original works there are far too many to mention. It has also launched many an actor’s career as well as writers and production crews of every kind. We should all be eternally grateful to have in our midst such dedicated, insanely talented, courageously generous and fierce guardians of theatre.
Faithless is a new play by their wonderful playwright-in-residence Jon Klein. It was originally written to star the wonderful Tom Ormeny, who passed just last year. But it seems fitting that they proceed with this beautiful play in his honor as it deals with the greatest of questions – faith and death and purpose and love.
The story is centered around a family whose own matriarch passed a year before. Gus is a stepfather to two grown stepchildren, a son and a daughter, and he is also a father to an adopted daughter, Rosie, 16, whose bombshell announcement is the reason for the four of them to be together again. An unusual occurrence it seems.
Rosie has decided to become a nun…which you might imagine causes quite a stir. Even to her elder brother who just happens to be a minister. Gus is an atheist and his late wife was a Christian but not, according to Gus, a devout one. Only visiting the church her son ran in order to be supportive of him. So where did this idea for Rosie to give up all worldly goods and her family and the possibility of love and children originate? That question becomes a part of the journey we all take with this funny, fraught, still grieving family, their remaining parent struggling to recover from cancer and keep true to his late wife’s wishes.
Being an adult does not require any of us to suddenly become ‘mature.’ I feel less and less adult as I age, in fact. Perhaps being older means we can be more accepting of our complete lack of any real control over our lives and give less of a damn about what anyone thinks about it anyway. I know I have reached that blissful moment of letting go lately. And I embracing it daily with thanks. But I am old-ish and there are far more people in my life who are not and who still fall into that ever-revolving trap wondering if they are doing ‘life’ right.
Faithless explores the notion this and of good. Who is and who is not. How to be good, how to live life well and who in our lives is actually worth the weight we sometimes feel from them. It’s a lovely window into one slightly wonky family’s own particular epiphany. A reminder that we never know what day might be our last and to not panic about that, but rather to embrace it. There is an end and that could give us some solace rather than fear, if we let it.
The performances are nuanced and wonderful, playful, truthful and real. This collection of fine actors truly felt like a family with all the bespoke clutter and messy history that comes with being related to someone, whether by blood or not. Sometimes a family is a choice made. A construct deliberately wrought and purposefully created. And perhaps those kinds of families are all the more special because of it.
Tom Ormeny and Maria Gobetti made their theatre their family, so it is a fitting tribute to them both that Faithless extolls the virtues of chosen families and the limitless depths of love they can bring.
Faithless is an excellent play warmly and artfully directed by Maria Gobetti and performed by gifted actors. The set design by the genius that is Evan Bartoletti is as usual phenomenal, with exquisitely authentic touches that keep us totally present in these fascinating characters’ lives.
I recommend Faithless at the Victory Theatre Center without restraint. They are, I think, the most interesting theatre in Los Angeles and they always make certain to bring wonderful, emotional and deeply moving utterly human work to us all, thankfully!
Tickets:
https://ci.ovationtix.com/35020/production/1189389
When:
March 8 – April 14
Where:
The Victory Theatre Center
3326 W Victory Blvd., Burbank