By Shari Barrett
Geffen Playhouse presents the West Coast premiere of Furlough’s Paradise, written by a.k. payne, directed by Tinashe Kajese-Bolden, with choreography by Dell Howlett. The cast includes Kacie Rogers as Mina and DeWanda Wise as Sade, two cousins who were inseparable as children but now lead very different lives. Raised like sisters, the two return to their childhood town for the funeral of their mother and aunt. While Sade is on a three-day furlough from prison and Mina experiences a brief reprieve from her career and life on the West Coast, the two try to make sense of grief, home, love, and kinship. But traumas and resentments from the past, both real and surreal, threaten to pull them apart, all as time ticks towards the correctional officer’s arrival to take Sade back behind bars.
Centered around the experience of the women exploring how to best live their lives without judging each other for mistakes made along the way, director Kajese-Bolden and choreographer Howlett have the women express their erupting emotions through physical manifestation, accompanied with brash sounds and flashing lights as their inner turmoil explodes through movement. Thus, Mina and Sade communicate with their bodies not just their words, taking us along as they discover the power of love and family to overcome whatever challenges life brings as they work to living in their self-designed utopian future.
However, there are lots of words in this 80-minute play, often turning the meat of their conversations into “talking heads” moments. Luckily, Rogers and Wise are strong enough to keep us pulled into what they are saying, even if some of the topics appear to be too far out of our own experience to be easily understood. For instance, the two take great joy dancing to a Cheetah Girls, a singing group created by Disney that was un familiar to me. So it was not until after the play that I understood why the group spoke to the power of young women to take charge of their own lives. Then I understood why Mina and Sade delighted in dancing to them with abandon as the two were at the point of knowing they had the power to create their own lives as they saw them, while supporting and staying in touch along the way to finding their own form of paradise.
Before the play begins, the audience was asked to be sure “to take a dream with you when you go.” I thought about this on my way home, and hope everyone did the same so perhaps we can all live in the kind of utopian world where dreams are met.
Music is big part of production from Coltrane to Louis Armstrong, songs that remind the two of their parents’ style. As days one through three pass, we follow as the two cousins’ journey through family memories following the funeral of Sade’s mother. As time passes, details about their past and present lives are shared, their dreams, fears, and desire to have family in their lives. We learn about Mina’s girlfriend in Los Angeles and her own life in San Francisco, while Sade gives few details of her life behind bars nor the reason she was sent there. Instead, she shares her dream of living in utopia with like-minded previously incarcerated women creating a town and lifestyle to call their own.
Kudos to the entire tech team for their outstanding contributions to the visual artistry of the production, including scenic designer Chika Shimizu, Costume Designer Celeste Jennings, Lighting Designer Pablo Santiago, Sound Designer Cricket S. Myers, and Projection Designer Yee Eun Nam.
Furlough’s Paradise continues through Sunday, May 18 on Wednesday – Friday 8 p.m., Saturday 3 and 8 p.m., Sunday 2 and 7 p.m. in the Gil Cates Theater at Geffen Playhouse, 10886 Le Conte Avenue, Los Angeles 90024. Run time is 80 minutes, no intermission. Tickets run $36 – $139, available by phone at 310.208.2028 or online at www.geffenplayhouse.org. Rush tickets for each day’s performance are made available to the public one hour before showtime at the box office. $40 General/$20 Student. All Geffen Playhouse productions are intended for an adult audience; children under 10 years of age will not be admitted.
In an uncharacteristic and heartfelt departure from its celebrated canon of rare classical gems, Pacific Resident Theatre in Venice is presenting the World Premiere of Fostered, a vibrant contemporary comedy with elements of farce and drama thrown in, impeccably written by Chaya Doswell. It centers around the Foster family who must learn to be self-resilient after facing life-threatening secrets in their personal lives. Can an entire family eventually learn to laugh, heal, and unite after relationship challenges threaten to pull their lives apart? I guarantee you will laugh from start to finish as each twist and turn surprises you as family secrets are revealed.
And after a new year marked by devastation from the Los Angeles fires – which claimed the homes of director Andrew D. Weyman and two cast members – this production offers a much-needed breath of levity as its heartbeat, reminding us that when there is love within a family, hope for a better future will flourish.
Fostered centers on the dysfunctional Foster family in Scarsdale, New York when parents Karen (Terry Davis) and Sandy (Tony Pasqualini) are finally free of their four children under their roof and ready to make some big changes by selling their home and moving in Hawaii. But their plans are thwarted just two days after the sale when their four adult children return home one by one on the same night, each beset with problems and needing a place to stay. You see, none knew about the sale or their parents upcoming departure!
Along with Davis and Pasqualini’s brilliant performances as an older couple learning to deal with which phone is ringing where, forgetfulness about where an iPad was left, and who is responsible for doing what then it comes to packing up and moving, they must figure out what to tell their kids about Shafeek (handsome Satiar Pourvasei), a Syrian immigrant and a stranger to all of them, who walks around in shorts and a bathrobe!
As the story evolves, each family member is forced to take a good hard look at who they have been pretending to be.
Katy Downing (Alice, the eldest daughter) has just left her husband and two kids, claiming she’s in love with someone else; Daughter Rachel (Hope Lauren) is a high-powered divorce attorney looking to make partner who shows up followed by her live-in boyfriend Daniel (Hiram A. Murray) mid-fight, bringing cases of vodka with her so each family member can drink from their own personal bottle as they learn to embrace their authentic selves; son Jeremy (mesmerizing Taubert Nadalini), a successful accountant who is facing his wife’s desire to have a baby while he is not ready to be a father; and youngest sibling Maggie (Jillian Lee Garner), a single pro-life/climate change activist who has finally run out of couches to crash on and needs to stay with her parents to figure out her next move. At first Maggie seems to be the least emotionally competent of the family – but just wait until, as the only clear-headed person remaining, Garner steals the spotlight in tour-de-force style during Maggie’s thoroughly entertaining monologue in which she reveals some of her siblings’ shocking secrets.
Director Weyman expertly mixes elements of farce with family comedy and drama, with his energetic cast frequently running up and down stairs, in and out of several doors, moving scenic elements designed by Rich Rose between scenes while quickly changing costumes designed by Audrey Eisner, with the entire production lit to perfection by Michael Redfield. Sound design by Keith Stevenson includes music from a standing radio or album turntable, as well as the ever-presenting ringing from misplaced phones.
Fostered runs at 8 p.m. Thursdays – Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays through June 15, 2025. Tickets start at $35 – $45 ($35 Thursdays, 55+ Discount $10; Student rush at door $12) online https://pacificresidenttheatre.org/ or call (310) 822-8392. Pacific Resident Theatre is located at 703 Venice Blvd, Venice 90291. Street parking or limited free lot behind building. And since we all need a good laugh right how as our world seems to be falling apart on so many levels, this is THE show you need to see right now! And remember to tell your family members how much you love them, no matter what, and then go live the life you have always dreamed of for yourself – and accept responsibility for the choices you make to do so. And laugh at all the craziness along the way!
