SUKKOT


Few situations are riper for raucous laughter, long-festering rage, and buckets of tears than the much dreaded family reunion, and since almost everybody on this planet has attended at least one (if not dozens) of them, expect to find much to identify with and relish in Matthew Leavitt’s marvelous new family-reunion dramedy Sukkot.

It’s been a year now since Patrick Sullivan (Andy Robinson) lost his wife of over half a century to cancer, and to honor his wife’s Jewish heritage, Patrick has decided to celebrate the ritual unveiling of her grave marker with his three adult children by his side.

Not that religion has ever been a part of the Sullivans’ family life, but tradition is tradition, even if Patrick has no idea how to go about honoring this one.

And so a phone call is placed to local Rabbi Jacobson, who informs Patrick that his wife’s unveiling happens to coincide this year with Sukkot, aka “the only holiday when God directly commands Jews to rejoice,” the celebration of which entails building a “sukkah,” a temporary outdoor hut where the whole family eats and sleeps and gathers for seven days each year.

Perhaps not surprisingly, this hitherto unknown-to-the-Sullivans tradition isn’t at all what Patrick’s kids are expecting.

First to protest the idea of sleeping under the stars is Asher (Jonathan Slavin), who’s spent the past two years back in his childhood bedroom following the loss of both his university teaching job and his boyfriend, and who isn’t at all eager to move out and move on.

Gynecologist Mairead (Liza Seneca), who’s flown back to Marin County from the St. Louis home she shares with her banker husband and two small children, is most definitely not going to sleep anywhere but comfortably indoors, not when this is the first chance she’s had in years to get a much-needed good night’s rest.

Free-spirited Eden (Natalie Lander), who’s hitched a motorcycle ride from the airport with a biker named Tank, has probably slept in worse places than a sukkah, but the odds are she too would rather not exchange a comfortable bed for backyard grass and a blanket.

Perhaps not surprisingly, it doesn’t take long for childhood dynamics to resurface, Eden blaming her older sister for immediately assuming any decision she makes must be the wrong one, Mairead and Asher poopooing Eden’s latest brainstorm (“a dating app that matches you with someone by which restaurants you go to”), and Asher blaming both his sisters for leaving it entirely up to him to care for their terminally ill mother and aging father while they went on with their own lives thousands of miles away.

Fortunately for audiences in search of a hundred highly entertaining minutes of live theater, laughter and drama mesh seamlessly into one perfect whole as childhood grudges reemerge, and secrets, both recent and long-buried, get revealed.

Not only that, but if there’s more than a ring of truth in this latest The 6th Act World Premiere, it should come as no surprise that there’s more than a passing resemblance between Leavitt’s own family and the Sullivans, nor that Sukkot’s four roles were written specifically for its four stellar players.

Under Joel Zwick’s incisive direction, stage treasure Robinson is heartbreakingly real as a man whose grief is compounded by the unstoppable effects of aging; Seneca once again dazzles as a woman who would seem, at least on the surface, to have it all; Slavin is a grouchy, acerbic delight as a man who finds himself at one of life’s crossroads; and the fabulous Lander’s trademark perkiness hides darker shades soon to be revealed.

 Scenic designer Mark Mendelson has done a terrific job bringing to life the Sullivan family sukkah, requisite garlands and incongruous Christmas lights and all, with equally expert designs contributed by Douglas Gabrielle (lighting), Christopher Moscatiello (sound), and whoever costumed the cast.

Rich Wong is stage manager. David Elzer is publicist.

Thomas Wolfe to the contrary, Matthew Leavitt’s Sukkot makes it abundantly clear that you can indeed go home again, and audiences are all the luckier that the Sullivan offspring do precisely that in the crowd-pleasingest play in town.

Skylight Theatre, 1816 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles.
www.the6thact.com

–Steven Stanley
January 13, 2024
Photos: Jackson Davis

 

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