Performances could hardly be better, but 65 minutes isn’t nearly long enough for playwright Miranda Rose Hall to fully flesh out her three protagonists or the issues raised in The Sandwich Ministry, now nearing the end of its run at the Skylight Theatre.

It’s been an unspecified length of time since 70something Joyce (Jayne Taini), 50-year-old Claudia (Maha Chehlaoui), and 20ish Hannah (Jordan Hull) last gathered in the fellowship hall of a small Presbyterian church somewhere in the American heartland to make sandwiches to feed the needy.

Indeed, were it not for tonight’s worst storm ever, the three women would probably still be doing their own things somewhere other than together.

But with countless townspeople at least temporarily homeless, Joyce has taken it upon herself to send out an S.O.S. to Hannah and Claudia despite their having quit the sandwich ministry some time back with little likelihood of returning.

Since last she and Joyce met, Hannah has opened a studio where she not only teaches something or other (I never did figure out what that was) but also handles maintenance, marketing, merchandise, etc., and Joyce is none too pleased to hear that her former protégé’s advanced class conflicts with Sunday morning services, though this may not be the only reason Hannah’s been avoiding church.

Some of it may be related to Claudia’s not having been around to help Hannah through her breakup with Lacey, who’s been filling her social media pages with pix of “the amazing food and amazing yoga and amazing women” she’s been enjoying in the land down under. (Could Claudia’s absence from Hannah’s life have something to do with her pastor wife’s being off meditating in Italy?)

As for Joyce, well she at least has kept busy worrying about which will run out first, her savings or her time on this earth, that and buying an affordable burial plot in which to spend eternity.

In the meantime, there are sandwiches to be made and parables to be recounted, discussed, and debated, secrets to be revealed, and tears to be shed by all three, and frankly speaking, an hour and five minutes isn’t nearly enough for all the Sandwich Ministry has on its plate, nor is the blessing that concludes the play the most satisfying of endings.

None of this is the fault of director Katie Lindsay or her three talented actors, and to give the play and production their due, most of the reviews which The Sandwich Ministry has received have been glowing.

Design elements are uniformly topnotch. Carolyn Mraz has designed a stark but spacious fellowship hall and R.S. Buck has us convinced that it’s being lit entirely by overhead florescent bulbs.

Mylette Nora’s lived-in costumes and Michael O’Hara’s dozens upon dozens of properties (including sandwich ingredients galore) score design points as does Noel Nichols’ storm effects-packed sound design.

The Sandwich Ministry is produced by Gary Goldman. Casting is by Victoria Hoffman. Jessica Kilgore is production stage manager.

Miranda Rose Hall’s The Sandwich Ministry merits kudos for tackling issues that touch our lives in 2024 including but not limited to religion, sexuality, and climate change, not to mention the personal crises her three characters face. If only this all came together as a longer and more satisfying whole.

Skylight Theatre, 1816 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles.
www.skylighttheatre.org

–Steven Stanley
June 29, 2024
Photos: Seth Dorcey

Tags: Los Angeles Theater Review, Miranda Rose Hall, Skylight Theatre Company