SISTER CITIES BY COLETTE FREEMAN @ THE STAR OF THE SEA MANLY

 

sister-cities-by-colette-freedman-95 sister-cities-by-colette-freedman-72

This delightful black comedy concerns four very different dysfunctional step-sisters who have returned home to mourn their mother’s successful suicide.

Their mother caused these four estranged step-sisters to have quirky and completely different lives, smart females each as different as the cities for which they were named. Life is complicated and having a close-knit family is so important, but they have learnt to disagree about everything, making each woman very memorable, long after the play ends.

Deftly directed with vision nuance and care, director Roz Riley, has applied her unique paradigm to choosing a solid and compelling ensemble cast of five superb actors, each pitch perfect for their role, for this powerful and emotional play. Each sister presents as an authentic articulate individual with fascinating and realistic back-stories. The mother’s personal life choices are nothing short of shocking.

Without resorting to showing women who only define themselves in terms of their partnerships these women are definitely not shallow stereotypical characters.

All four have decided to master not only what they love, but have chosen to also master what they despise. Effective set design and costumes, plus the lighting and music choices were all excellent.

Almost perfect, riveting with so many unexpected twists and turns, SISTER CITIES easily provides the requisite red-herrings and other diversions, and also delivers an unexpected ending.  The entire experience was gripping.

Austin is the daughter who lived with and cared for her mother; Carolina is the fast talking, hard-edged solicitor who is vying to be a judge; Dallas is the very tightly-wound daughter suffering because of her upcoming divorce; and the youngest daughter is free-spirited bohemian Baltimore who is a Harvard under-graduate.

The show was presented with an opening prelude of eighteen minutes called “If it wasn’t for the Nights” by Suzanne Hauser.

Colette Freedman has written more than twenty-five produced plays, and this play was first presented from 7th May 2006 by Circus Theatricals, in the Studio Theatre at the Hayworth, Los Angeles, USA. This audience pleaser was also made into a Lifetime Television movie with a cast of twemty-three actors, released in the States in September 2016.

The play ran for a total running time just under two hours, with one interval.

The production is now in its final week, playing this Friday and Saturday at 7.30 pm, at the Star Of The Sea Theatre, corner Collingwood Street and Iluka Avenue, Manly.

https://www.trybooking.com/Booking/BookingEventSummary.aspx?eid=217020