Other Desert Cities

The Wyeths are a family of secrets; ghost of deceased son Henry walks with them, the circumstances of his death omnipresent. When the family comes together for a Palm Springs Christmas, daughter Brooke (Rebecca Davis) reveals her faulty memoir and history and present collide. Playwright Jon Robin Baitz dissects both family and post-9/11 America; the Wyeths are simultaneously real and analogical. It's smart theatre, tension carefully escalated until truth ultimately prevails. Kate Cherry's direction is quietly masterful; the play takes place in one room, action entirely verbal. In lesser hands this could be interminably dull; but Cherry keeps the cast moving, creating action from virtually nothing. Janet Andrewartha gives a pinpoint precise performance as matriarch Polly; not a single gesture fails to add to the character's complexity. Robert Coleby as patriarch Lyman is a study in quiet pain and avoidance; Conrad Coleby as youngest son Trip is wonderfully rendered by Coleby, an actor with rare presence. Fractured daughter Brooke is a more problematic invention. Some will empathise with her fragility, blamed on a mother she believes fabricated a mythology that bears no resemblance to the truth. Others will see her as a self-entitled brat unable to recognise that the suffering she clings to is not hers alone. Nonetheless, Other Desert Cities is a skilful and engrossing examination of family, sacrifice, histories and loss.