Playwright: Michael R. Fife, At: the side project at the North Lakeside Cultural Center, 6219 N. Sheridan, Phone: (773) 973-2150; $15, Runs through: Oct. 10
The Sum of Her Parts begins with a dead mother entering her livingroom and checking for dust. She talks about how the living like to speculate on what the deceased would have done if they had just had more time. And what would she have done? ‘I would have cleaned better,’ she says, initiating the first of many laughs in this seriocomic look at familial relationships filtered through the phenomenon of breast cancer. Cleaning house is a good metaphor for The Sum of Her Parts, a play about clearing family secrets, conflicts, and fears out of the closet.
Three adult sisters, Barbara, Marie, and Leslie (and their husbands) have gathered at their family home on the eve of their mother, Elizabeth’s, funeral. Elizabeth (a restrained performance from Kay Schmitt) died from breast cancer. Right away, family dynamics are established: Marie (Adrienne Smith in the evening’s finest portrayal: heartfelt, natural, and sympathetic) is the eldest and as such, is the caretaker, the long-suffering martyr, Barbara (a complex rendering from Rachel Martindale) is the middle child, filled with pent-up tension and ready to challenge, and Leslie (Lane gets her innocence and youth just right), the ‘baby,’ warmer and softer than her older sisters, but wishing she could share part of their bond, however warped. Marie and Barbara find ways to be at odds with one another, although their bond is fierce. And Leslie has always felt less than this pair, truly the baby and, as such, often left out.
What follows is what one refers to as family drama. M.R. Fife’s script can’t quite be called brilliant. Workmanlike is more the term that comes to mind, and that’s not a criticism. But those arriving looking for flights of fancy (other than the conceit of having the dead mother watching over the family squabbles and resolutions, which isn’t exactly an innovative theatrical device) creative metaphor, symbolism, or complex plotting should look elsewhere. However, Fife’s script is solid (the only criticism I would have is that it gets a bit too preachy and doesn’t relax enough to let his characters always do their jobs, putting platitudes in their mouths like, ‘You can’t just run away from something; you have to have something to run to’). He has created fine, distinct human beings, none of whom are perfect and who, for the most part, talk like real people. His story is carefully rendered, meting out catharsis, revelation, and resolution skillfully. And, best of all, in the end, The Sum of Her Parts truly touches, because its characters are so human and its exploration of family dynamics so acute, we really care about these people and become part of them. The fact that the play is staged in the livingroom of an old mansion, with the audience sitting on one side of the room, makes it all the more real and immediate. Christopher J. Berens’ staging was a bit static in the first act (when real people talk, dialogue overlaps), but by the second act, we are caught up in the drama and as secrets are let out, we feel a palpable sense of relief, along with the characters. It’s in the final scenes with the three sisters that The Sum of Her Parts truly sings with pathos and credible joy. Any criticisms above are minor quibbles; this is a gripping, heartfelt, and universal family story. You’ll come away richer for the experience.