A three-hour drama about the life of a typical Greek-American family may not sound particularly exciting, but "Flesh and Blood" more than engages its audience. The Stassos family isn't so ordinary, after all.
An adaptation of the novel by Pulitzer Prize-winner Michael Cunningham, this Zeitgeist Stage Company production traces three generations of the Stassos family over the hundred-year span from 1935 to 2035.
The Stassoses appear to be living the American Dream. Family patriarch Constantine (played by Robert Murphy) forges a successful career for himself, his older daughter Susan (Angela Rose) is nominated for homecoming queen, and his only son Billy (Mason Sand) gets accepted to Harvard.
As the family evolves, however, its happy, well-adjusted exterior flakes away to reveal deep, underlying problems; each character has a dark story that intertwines with that of the family as a whole. Constantine's relationship with his wife, Mary (Maureen Adduci), grows increasingly estranged as the play goes on, and the proud father abuses Billy (now known as Will) when the young man grows up to be a homosexual adult. Daddy's girl Susan marries her high school sweetheart, but cheats on him and has an incestuous relationship with her father. Not to be outdone, Zoe (Melissa Baroni), the youngest child, gets pulled into the world of sex and drugs and finds herself a single mother with AIDS.
The actors deliver genuine performances that give the play a smooth flow, and the realistic, engaging dialogue lends itself to moments of humor that emerge naturally from the script. The small cast is extremely versatile, with 11 actors playing 25 roles of all ages, yet only rarely does this multiple-role technique become confusing.
For the most part, the characters' aging is both believable and artistically sound. Baroni, for example, gets better as her character, Zoe, grows older, and while Murphy and Adduci are not very convincing as the teenaged Constantine and Mary, Murphy is natural through the bulk of the play in his role as the domineering father figure. His fights with his only son Will (Sand) are emotionally charged, giving the audience a peek into something private and nearly taboo.
It's never easy for an adult actor to play a child, but the 100-year span of time Cunningham explores in his story makes it necessary. Rose convincingly plays Susan as both a teenager and later a mother, both of whom are unhealthily attached to her father. Their special, amorous relationship manifests itself physically, with scenes fittingly uncomfortable and jarring. This disturbing relationship is never developed enough, and its lack of resolution leaves the audience hanging.
The set and lighting are extremely creative and efficient. Accents like trees and the small performance space, although challenging for the actors, make for a very intimate experience. Due to the arrangement of the stage, any seat is a good view. The costumes, hairstyles and attitudes outline each decade clearly. Each decade, too, provides its special entertainment, the '60s and '70s being the most interesting and entertaining. Everyone is familiar with this tumultuous time and its various stereotypes, but seeing the era through the turmoil of this particular family is a new, more intimate experience. This period leads to even more complication as the family continues to age and grow more distant.
At various times, the characters stand at the edge of the stage and whisper memories and lines from their pasts. This dramatic technique is confusing at first, but the characters' echoes tie the past to the present and transition through the years. One scene parallels all three children's busy lives as they ignore their mother's phone calls. This powerful moment is irrevocable evidence of the children's estrangement and independence.
The finale of this family's saga unintentionally raises many questions. Even so, this rather weak and confusing conclusion is not enough to bring down the richness and depth of "Flesh and Blood," an introspective journey and entertaining experience.
