How interesting can a play be if it tells the story of an unremarkable person’s life told by that unremarkable person and the unremarkable people who surround them?
How unremarkable? So unremarkable that playwright Simon Stephens doesn’t even give them names in his cast list for Morning Sun, now playing in the Condiotti Experimental Theatre at the Spreckels Performing Arts Center in Rohnert Park through April 6. He just lists them as “1, a woman in her fifties; 2, a woman in her seventies; 3, a woman in her thirties.”
And what if the things that compose that unremarkable life are things that happen in millions of unremarkable lives? Relatable, perhaps. Remarkable? No.
So retaining an audience’s interests falls completely on the talents of the individuals telling the story. Thankfully, director Lauren Heney has three remarkable North Bay talents filling those roles: Sandra Ish, Molly Noble and Taylor Diffenderfer.
We do come to learn their names. Ish plays Charlotte “Charley” McBride. Noble plays her mother, Claudette McBride, and Diffenderfer plays Tessa McBride, Charley’s daughter and Tessa’s granddaughter.
The show opens with the three performers on a sparse set consisting of a couple of different-level platforms with tulle curtains draping the upstage area. We quickly gather that we’re in a hospital room and that Charley is near the end of her life.
And then she goes, and her story begins. Things happen.
It begins with Tessa’s short courtship and marriage to Harold, a miscarriage and then the arrival of Charlotte, who hates the name and chooses at an early age to go by Charley. Then it’s Charley’s story from adolescence to adulthood, with “chapters” on school friends, career choices, one night stands, an unexpected pregnancy, a tough decision, motherhood, a marriage, a divorce, a second chance, a second marriage and an illness.
The mothers and daughters all tell the tale and “play” all the characters that come into and out of their lives.
It’s a remarkable acting challenge for all three performers, but particularly for Ish, who recently finished up a run of What the Constitution Means to Me, another dialogue heavy show.
Audiences who can’t relate to the multiple New York City references will surely relate to the parent-child relationships that unfold over the course of the two-plus hours.
Nothing too extraordinary happens in Morning Sun except life. For a discerning audience that appreciates fine acting, sometimes that’s enough.
‘Morning Sun’ runs through April 6 in the Condiotti Experimental Theater at the Spreckels Performing Arts Center, 5409 Snyder Ln., Rohnert Park. Fri-Sat, 7:30pm; Sun, 2pm. $14-$32. 707.588.3400. spreckelsonline.com.
