Jon Cellini’s new play Harbor follows a dysfunctional family through its final throes. It’s not a pretty sight.
The center of the family was Dad (Bob Rumnock, alternating with John C. McLaughlin), a rather taciturn gentleman whose passion was running his toy electric boats on the local pond. When he dies, early in the play, his two daughters, Jules and DeeDee (Mary Thornton Brown and Luka Lyman) gather at his home in Massachusetts for a small family memorial service.
Jules and her ex-husband Tommy (Matthew Lillard) have been divorced for ten years, and Tommy has brought along his new pregnant wife, Christie (Zibby Allen), while Jules’ current boyfriend Saul (Grinnell Morris) lurks anxiously in the background.
Also present are DeeDee’s husband Ronnie (PJ Marino) and Jules and Tommy’s teen-age son Justin (Matthew Gardner).
The characters are not lovable. Tommy is an abrasive lunk with a talent for saying the wrong thing. Jules is angry and sarcastic. DeeDee is overwrought. And Justin inexplicably appears from time to time in wrestling gear, alone on a dark stage, lunging and grimacing.
After supper they all play a party game and Jules, who had contemptuously dismissed Christie as an airhead, is chagrined to find that Christie is the champion of the game.
And Jules’ boyfriend Saul keeps bumbling in with inappropriate and badly timed suggestions for her future.
This is a play that asks two questions: 1. Can this extended family survive their differences? And 2. Do we care?
The world premiere of Harbor, written and directed by Jon Cellini, will continue at The Victory Theatre Center, 3326 W. Victory Blvd. in Burbank Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 8 p.m. through December 3rd. Call 818-841-5421 for reservations
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