The stage production of "Letting Go," which ran from October 12th through 28th at North Hollywood's Raven Playhouse, is not for the weak-hearted. The play deals with the ever-wrenching topic of loss and death of loved ones, and is divided into four independent acts following diverging but comparable stories. Each story was inspired by the actors' real life experiences, which brings an added touch of eeriness and melancholy to the script.

Featuring top-notch actors including co-writers and producers Elisa Dyann and Candice Martin, each act includes several characters facing different predicaments of anguish. The first act, titled "Never Walk Again," is about a young bed-ridden woman named Lindsey (Heidi Hurst) who has been involved in a horrific accident, and cannot remember that her lover was killed. Instead, she believes she is still in a relationship with her former fiancé, Jake (Danny Grossman), who has since remarried and is fed up with perpetuating the false notion that they are still together. Lindsey's mother, played by Lorilynn Failor, is too fearsome of the consequences to reveal the true situation to her beloved daughter.

The second act focuses on a gay couple who have both been HIV positive for twenty years, one of whom, Jimmy, (played by Barry Saltzman) has been declining rapidly in the last few months and is barely able to speak or stand up as he lies on his death bed. His partner Alan (Corey Smith) is beside himself with grief and despair, not only from watching his ailing companion, but also because of a lack of support from insurance and healthcare. Co-writer and producer Candice Martin rounds out the cast as a supportive and understanding "girlfriend," as Jimmy calls her, who is equally distraught and helpless as she watches her longtime friend pass away.

Act three is the most tear-jerking of all, and my favorite. The set begins with a young mother named Vanessa (played by Elisa Dyann) perkily calling for her eight year-old son Frankie to come get dressed for his first day of third grade. A soundtrack of cartoons can even be heard coming from the room off set. As time progresses, Frankie does not come out, and she repeatedly calls for him innocently. Her two sisters (Stephanie Ortiz and Sarah Kelly) then appear, and reveal the tragic news – Frankie has been dead for six weeks. As they recount the story of his sudden severe headaches and ensuing death from a brain aneurysm, Vanessa continues to deny to her sisters and to herself that any such thing ever happened, and keeps calling for him to come get dressed. Eventually, in a dimly lit scene with Vanessa sobbing to herself in the dark, Frankie's ghost (played alternately by Michael Arnold and Evan Bryant) appears from his room dressed in pajamas. He walks out and tells his mother how much he loves her, and that he wants her to stop being so sad. Bryant was outstanding as a sinister and spiritual figure, speaking softly in a sweet and innocent voice. This scene was brilliantly done, and surely had the majority of onlookers reaching for their tissues.

The final act takes place at a cemetery on Easter Sunday. Though the scene again involves death, this time in the form of a widow and widower's deceased spouses, there is an optimism in the air. While the woman, Dorothy (Bette Smith), and man, Walter (Jayson Kraid), express sorrow for the loss of their lovers and soulmates of over forty years, their meeting and conversation furnishes them with hope of moving on. The play's title line surfaces when Walter professes that one of the hardest and most important things in life is knowing when to let go of one's past. This gives the audience a reason to stop crying and smile, as we see that despite the horrendous and often seemingly unsurmountable misery that we encounter with loss, there is always a renaissance and new beginning to be found somewhere – a place and time in which we can finally move on.

Look for Elisa Dyann and Candice Martin in their new movie, Someone for Everyone (see link below). The Raven Playhouse is located at 5233 Lankershim Blvd. in North Hollywood.

LINKS:

http://www.lettinggoplay.com/

http://www.ravenplayhouse.com/theater.htm

http://www.someoneforeveryone.com