Review: Grangeville

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GRANGEVILLE begins at the Ruskin Group Theatre in Santa Monica through July 19.

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Anyone would think it would be easy to review a play that is staged to absolute perfection on all levels including the script, director, actors, and overall technical brilliance. But I am finding it difficult to effectively share my overwhelming emotional reaction to the intense story of two half-brothers who are more like strangers than siblings as the play begins, living half a world away from each other who must try to communicate with via phone calls when their mother is in the final stages of her life. And if you are dealing with, or have also dealt with, a similar family (or close friends) situation, I guarantee your reaction will be exactly the same as mine when you experience the magnificent West Coast premiere of Samuel D. Hunter ’s play Grangeville at the Ruskin Group Theatre Arts Center in Santa Monica through July 19.

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Director John Perrin Flynn (pictured), who has helmed three of Hunter’s plays in the past, understands the piercing empathetic insights that the playwright brings to his stories and to the characters he creates. “Audiences can relate; we all have memories from childhood,” Flynn shares, “sometimes it seems that that there is no going forward. Sometimes families self-destruct in such a way that those who remain create prisons of the mind, places where they don't allow themselves to go. They think the love, which was there and still is, is not enough to break them free.”

Along with Flynn’s evocative direction, Hunter’s brilliantly written two-hander with thoroughly complicated characters is brought to life by two extraordinary actors: Tim Cummings as Arnold and Jeff LeBeau as Jerry, who will pull you in emotionally as they attempt to put their past, destructive memories at bay and seek forgiveness with each other to give their mother an appropriate send-off together - with little success as the play unfolds in an attention-grabbing 90 minutes.

Jeff LeBeau , Tim Cummings Production photos by John Perrin Flynn

Hunter’s impeccably-written script unfolds with vignettes occurring in the present time as well as the past when memories are shared. The story centers around two estranged half-brothers - one living in rural Grangeville, Idaho, where they were raised and the other in Amsterdam (one straight and the other gay), who have not spoken in 20 years but must now reconnect through a series of phone calls as they grapple with decisions about their ailing mother’s care and final wishes. But what begins as a practical discussion slowly unearths long-buried tensions as old wounds resurface which explore the fragility of memory, the stories we tell to make sense of our suffering, and the complicated and often elusive nature of forgiveness.

Playwright Hunter, himself a gay man who grew up in middle America, infuses Grangeville with constant self-examining monologues amid intense dialogues to let us see just who Arnold and Jerry really are and why they have not spoken for so long. Those details are revealed slowly as phone calls between them take over many months, each detail interspersed with precise played-out scenes to tell the all-too-familiar story of siblings who are just too different to ever see eye-to-eye on anything.

Jeff LeBeau , Tim Cummings

Cummings’ star-quality ability to dig deep into his soul and unite it with Arnold’s is on full display every time the uptight and detail-oriented character appears, as opposed to LeBeau’s older and laid-back Jerry who has never left the small town in which they were raised and now had moved in to their mother’s small and rundown trailer to care for her as his marriage is falling apart.

Differences between the half-brothers are exceedingly apparent from the start, with Arnold, a previously highly successful artist now experiencing a slump in his creative juices after his husband Rom, a European-born and successful art museum docent on his way up the career ladder to manager in Rotterdam. Moving to the less-inhabited pot town has robbed Arnold of his passion for the gay-friendly nightlife and close friends in the more free-wheeling Amsterdam, and his unhappiness causes additional stress during every phone call with Jerry, leading to frequent emotional breakdowns handled with sincerity and brutal honesty by Cummings.

Jeff LeBeau , Tim Cummings

Jerry who admits he has never been happy feeling stuck in Grangeville as the soul caregiver for his abusive and emotionally-draining, former alcoholic mother since his siblings moved away as soon as they could, while now facing his wife Stacey wanting to separate due to the long hours he spends caring for his dying mother instead of her and their two children. But questioning Arnold about why he left is pointless, for as alone as Jerry feels, there is no way Arnold would ever go back to Grangeville – or so he says until Jerry tells him that he was named executor of their mother’s will.

Tim Cummings , Jeff LeBeau

As they attempt to reconnect sharing memories via phone calls from half a world apart, played out during several highly charged emotional scenes from the past involving run-ins with each other or deep emotional scars created by childhood scars they went through living with their often-absent mother. But we also witness problems occurring with the men and their spouses, with Cummings portraying Jerry’s wife Stacey to perfection right down to her newfound sense of independence and natural femininity in movement and tone, with LeBeau brilliantly portraying Arnold’s native Dutch-speaking, business-professional dressing husband Rom who often struggles to find the right English words to communicate his frustration with Arnold’s downward-spiraling behavior.

As they morph between characters, I guarantee you will leave the theater feeling as if you met all four highly different people during their many character-revealing and emotionally-charged scenes together – so much so that you would recognize them if you met them walking down the street.

Jeff LeBeau , Tim Cummings

But in the end when the brothers reunite in Grangeville via the astounding movable scenic design by Stephanie Kerly Schwartz, the formerly more successful in love and life Arnold must finally come to terms dealing with family members he would prefer to forget, while Jerry’s ragtag life has improved greatly as the two begin sorting through mementos from their childhoods. For with Arnold’s long-distance discussions and his wife’s Stacey’s support when left alone to deal with his mother’s final months of life, Jerry has become a new man, confident in is posture and appearance, grateful to life with hope for a better future. Would that Arnold felt the same way…

Scenic design by Stephanie Kerly Schwartz

Overwhelming outstanding technical contributions perfectly matched to the characters and their moody circumstances contribute to the overall magnificence of the entire production, including attention-grabbing lighting design by Dan Weingarten , scenic and perfectly-coordinated costume design by Stephanie Kerly Schwartz, and sound design by Keith Stevenson that makes you authentically feel outdoors as well as indoors as scenes change.

I encourage you not to miss the West Coast Premiere of Samuel D. Hunter ’s Grangeville , directed to astounding emotional heights by John Perrin Flynn and produced by John Ruskin, Michael R. Myers, and Nicole Millar, on the Kaplan Stage at Ruskin Group Theatre, 2800 Airport Avenue, Santa Monica, CA 90405 through Sunday, July 19 at 8pm Fridays, Saturdays; 2pm Sundays (dark June 5, 12; July 3, 5 with added performances at 8pm on Mondays June 8, 15). Run time is approximately 90 minutes (no intermission)

Tickets are $40 - $45 and can be purchased in advance at www.ruskingrouptheatre.com or for more information: (310) 397-3244. Free parking available on site. But don’t wait to buy yours today since the small venue often sells out all performances in advance.

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_Originally reported by [BroadwayWorld](https://www.broadwayworld.com/los-angeles/article/Review-GRANGEVILLE-Staged-to-Absolute-Perfection-at-the-Ruskin-Group-Theatre-20260605)._