With the dysfunctional family a mainstay on the cultural horizon, it has become increasingly difficult to say anything new or enlightening about the condition. Surprisingly and with a healthy dose of compassion, author Liz Flahive has done just that with her new play From Up Here.
Kenny (Tobias Segal) is a bundle of nerves and resentments, not unusual for a high school senior. What is atypical is his recent behavior at school. A threat (albeit awkward) of violence to his fellow classmates has resulted in a temporary suspension and left him a social pariah; not that he was ever a beacon of social grace. The play opens with Kenny's first day back to school.
The house is aflutter with the everyday occurrences: Daniel (Brian Hutchison) a stay-at-home step-dad prattles on about sandwiches and self-esteem, sister Lauren (Aya Cash) while concerned about her dry cleaning is casting a worrisome eye on Kenny and mom Grace (the unparalleled Julie White) checks Kenny's knapsack for sharp objects while chastising the kids for not eating breakfast. Grace's sister (and Kenny's favorite aunt) Caroline (Arija Bareikis) arrives from her socially conscious, global adventures that morning to help with Kenny's 'transition' back.
What elevates Flahive's work above an after-school special is that she never dwells on (attention: spoiler alert) Kenny's taking a weapon to school. While the issue is never taken lightly, her concerns are more humane. She instead is more interested in the push/pull of daily life after such an occurrence and on how all parties are forced to acclimate to this new development. While everyone adapts a "life must go on" attitude, the undercurrent of anxiety and frustration is ever-present.
Her dialogue is sharp and incisive often locating the pain underneath the mundane. When Lauren joins Kenny at lunch (because no one else does) his first day back at school she nonchalantly asks: "So. If you were going to shoot one person today, who would it be?" A discussion of how inept and weird the other students are incurs pointing up the inherent cruelty of adolescence while almost ignoring the fact that Kenny went just one step further. Later in the play Grace is arrested for assault and refuses to leave jail when bail is posted because she is not ready to go home. Yet, she reminds Daniel to pick up Kenny at his senior prom. The turbulence of domestic life and the compromises needed to cope are frequently tinged with a comic relief.
Like the tentative movements everyone makes around Kenny, director Leigh Silverman gingerly approaches the material. She allows the events to unfold with a natural give and take while highlighting the combustibility just below the surface. Allen Moyer's set a large, messy kitchen provides the perfect setting for the family's fluid relationships.
The ensemble is first rate throughout; there is a wonderful subplot between the dry, mordant Lauren and a schoolmate, an obsessive geek named Charlie (a winsome Will Rogers) who has fallen in love with her (providing a lovely counterbalance to Kenny's story).
But the heart of the play is the relationship between Grace and Kenny. The leads could not be better modulated. Julie White harnesses her usual neurotic energy to give Grace an anxious concern for Kenny's developmental problems while subtly questioning her own abilities as a mother. Tobias Segal brings a quiet dignity to Kenny's unarticulated internal struggle yet we never lose sight of his anger or instability. Together they bring the story out of the sensational and into the heartfelt. There are a few missteps in Ms. Flahive's script (having Kenny deliver a formal apology to the student body seems a little far-fetched) but for the most part From Up Here looks just great from down here.
