John Iacovelli’ set made the stage come alive as a home easily visualized as a multilevel “cottage” in Martha’s Vineyard.  By slicing across the center of the house, Mr. Iacovelli designed an entry with stairs that flowed into the living room, through to the kitchen and finally all the way out to the back porch and patio, which allowed the LeVay family to move effortlessly through the scenes. Christian Epps’ lighting not only enhanced the different rooms of the house and the time of day but subtly flowed with the mood swings of the characters. Mitch Green Hill produced sounds including ocean swells and chirping birds, which perfectly reproduced the long summer days and nights of life near the beach. 

Lydia R. Diamond (playwright) created a powerful view of the lives that make up the LeVay family as they spent time at their summer home.  Shirley Jo Finney (director) opened the LeVay home to the audience and brought out the best in her cast: Taylor (Michole Briana White), feminist and fiancée and Kent (Chris Butler), younger son and writer; Cheryl (Tinashe Kajese) housekeeper’s daughter and high school graduate; Kimber (Avery Clyde) “Italian” translate that “white” and fiancée and Flip (Terrell Tilford) older son and player; and Dr LeVay (John Wesley) father and professional.  And that was just the tip of the iceberg.

Ms. White brought the achingly sincere, loquacious yet puzzling Taylor to life.  It was clear Taylor had missing-father issues that strongly shaped her identity with a fighting spirit that often overcompensated. Yet it was fascinating to watch her deal with her fiancé Kent, his family, her profession and her own past with a painful honesty that engaged the audience. Taylor held forth in the family conversations literally and was convincing except for her forced cadence when she tried to express herself through foul language.  You might think her a pain in the butt or cheer her on but you would not dismiss her.  Mr. Butler created a younger son who wanted to please his father and be true to himself, two diametrically opposed goals.  Success for Dr. LeVay meant becoming someone in the African-American community: a doctor, an attorney, a “recognized” professional.  Kent LeVay was a writer and he thought that with his first book coming out and Taylor on his arm, that maybe he could get his father’s approval.

Ms. Kajese straddled two worlds handling the LeVays as “family” and as a stand-in for her ailing housekeeper-Mom and working out her own future after high school.  Her efforts to deal with who Cheryl really is, got increasing complicated as her relationship with her Mom and LeVay family secrets were revealed.  Ms. Kajese’s ability to lay out Cheryl’s struggle to deal with caring for the LeVays and finding her own footing within the family, standing up for herself and adjusting to Taylor and Kimber, was absorbing to watch.  Her talent in bringing out Cheryl’s rollercoaster of emotions was a standout.

Ms. Clyde was cool, composed and yet down-to-earth.  She gave the audience Kimber, an old-money WASP with heart and judgment, a woman who knew herself and that things in life do not always work out the way one wants.  As Flip’s fiancée (I think, although I do not know if either one of them even knew), she walked in the summer house, ready to meet his family but essentially comfortable with whatever happened.  Of course realizing you want “the whole nine yards” with your lover can throw a wrench into the works!  It was ironic that the older, “successful surgeon” son, who patterned himself after the father he thought he knew, saw only the shell his father portrayed to the world, and was the most devastated when he was confronted with the fact that he really did not understand his father at all.  Mr. Tilford was charming, controlling or caustic in his interactions but at all times engrossing, determined to have a life based on Flip’s rules.  Love him, hate him, but there was no sitting on the fence.

Mr. Wesley portrayed the patriarch of the LeVay family with consummate ease. He gave the audience a man who was confident in his manhood which he defined by his ability to achieve professional success and take care of his family regardless of his wife’s social position or the consequences of his peccadilloes.  Mr. Wesley did not miss a beat, giving the audience a picture of a proud, intelligent and capable man who dealt with the black cultural mores within his own family as well as the larger black-white continuum in the outside world on his own terms.   Dr. LeVay strictly raised and judged his sons by his standards.  As flawed as one might perceive some of his thinking, you had to admire his sense of sense of self, of what manhood and black manhood in particular meant to him and how strongly he held true to his values.

There you have it.  Through Ms. Finney’s deft direction, Ms. Diamond’s portrait of a little seen portion of African-American family life has been vividly brought to the stage.

April 4 through June 28

The Matrix Theatre, 7657 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90046 323-960-7740 or www.plays411.com/stickfly