![]() ![]() ![]() In a particularly painful moment, Liane reaches for Jordan in search of comfort, even as she knows she won’t find any there. Knud Adams directs with a laser focus on the grand impact of minutiae-for a play that deals with a growing alienation of one’s body, he knows to home in on changes in physicality and connection among the characters. McDonnell shows us a woman whose former sense of self is stripped away post-diagnosis, and who will almost certainly struggle to regain her equilibrium in the wake of medical intervention. Rarely has the effect of a disease on the state of a marriage been portrayed with such a wrenching lack of sentimentality, and rarely has an actor been so willing to seem unlikeable as Fitzgerald. The interactions of Liane and Jordan offer the greatest potential for melodrama, but again, Gardener gives us something wrenchingly real. Gardner’s writing and Esterman’s remarkably subtle performance wrest a potentially buffoonish character from the realm of caricature, and you can almost understand why Toby would want to heal his melanoma with Reiki and good energy. Toby is also susceptible to the thrall of his New Age mother, Paula ( Laura Esterman), who believes that physical ailments can be cured through the power of positive thinking. Reggie’s relationship to Anna, a high-achieving Wall Street analyst, remains tense, even though it’s clear the sisters love each other. Again, the situation provides Gardner with a checklist of well-trodden scenarios to easily rehash, but she avoids the easy emotionality inherent in the setting. The micro-conversations that occur in the waiting room also dig into the complications of personal and familial relationships. Liane confesses to her husband Jordan ( Glenn Fitzgerald) that she fears their friends don’t like her enough to sympathize with her situation. Reggie wonders to her sister Anna (a sensational Gabby Beans) how her surgical scars will further other her: She’s already gay and pretentious, and now she’ll be deformed. ![]()
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