Review - Painting Churches

Last night, I finally made it to Theatre Row to see Tina Howe’s Painting Churches.  First, may I just say, I think Tina Howe is one of the most criminally underappreciated playwrights in America.  Thank you.  Second, I’d like to applaud the Keen Company for giving such respect to the works of writers we might not ordinarily see enough of, like Tina.  Third, knowing Tina even a little bit has added to my enjoyment of seeing her plays, because I can just hear her saying these lines and it makes me smile.  These characters immediately become real people to me.  There, ok, got that stuff off my chest.  Sorry for the name-dropping.  And is photo-dropping worse than name-dropping?  Sorry again.  Moving on. 

In my opinion, the play itself is, in a word, gorgeous.  This production isn’t quite.  Tina uses realism, absurdism, whimsy and pathos in equal measures.  It’s quite amazing the balance the script achieves.  In this particular production, though, I think the director needed a lighter touch (the staging seemed clunky in spots and even the original musical score played between scenes felt too heavy to me) and I really felt like one of the actors just couldn’t bring themselves to the level of the other two.

Kathleen Chalfant (who can do no wrong, as far as I’m concerned) and John Cunningham play an aging WASP-y couple, packing up their mansion to move to a smaller cottage on Cape Cod for reasons that will become more clear as the evening progresses.  Kate Turnbull is their artist daughter, come from NY to help them pack and to finally paint a portrait of her parents.  There are also many wounds to heal, secrets to learn and sadnesses to face. 

As you may remember, I am especially partial to plays about art and artists, and adding family matters into the equation only makes a play automatically more interesting to me.  Painting Churches beautifully uses a (supposedly) outdated art form (portraiture painting) to explore the family dynamic.  The way these characters deal with each other is almost like watching an artist stand an arms-length away from their easel.  One thing or another keeps the daughter from her painting, but once we finally get to the sitting for the portrait, it’s almost unbearably heartbreaking.  When Kathleen Chalfant says to her daughter that she is looking at her parents for her own gain, but she isn’t really SEEING them, it’s incredibly moving. 

There are several beautiful monologues, expressing love and poetry and pain.  Chalfant and Cunningham deliver their speeches exquisitely.  And Chalfant is especially stirring when she’s reacting to Cunningham’s poetry.  You see the years of their love flit across her face, along with the underlying sadness about what her life has become.  Cunningham is beautifully flamboyant AND understated (hard to do, I’m thinking!) as his character’s literary star is fading into dementia.  Turnbull, unfortunately, does not do as good a job with her role.  I just don’t think she’s up to the depth of the subtext in the language.  Her monologues came off to me as petulant diatribes instead of deeply felt cries of pain.  And the beautiful way that Tina has mirrored the parents’ emotional elusiveness with the daughter’s obliviousness is sort of lost on this actress.  Unfortunately.

I feel like this review makes no sense, so sorry for that.  I wish that this production lived up to Tina’s script, but, ah well.  You should go see it anyway.  Let people know we want more Tina Howe!!! 

Oh, and an annoying audience member report:  the gal sitting next to me did her grocery shopping before coming to the theater.  So, all through the evening, all I could smell was the nearly overpoweringly strong aromas of onion and garlic from her bags on the floor.  Seriously, people.  Shop afterwards?

Next weekend, I’m off to Humana Fest (please, theater gods, let these shows be good!), but first I’ll see the second musical in this year’s Encores series, Pipe Dream.  I’m very excited to see it, though now that Smash has sort of ruined Will Chase for me, it will be hard to enjoy him as the romantic lead… ;)

**five years ago, I reviewed BFF, by a former DG Fellow (I liked it - I wonder if it's having a life in the regions); four years ago, I reviewed Fight Girl Battle World, by a former co-worker's husband.  Lots of formers...