By TR Robertson
Solana Beach’s North Coast Repertory Theatre’s has produced numerous very funny plays over the course of 43 seasons of performances and their latest production, “Incident at Our Lady of Perpetual Help”, has to rank in the top five of extremely hilarious and unbelievably enjoyable performances. The memory play takes the audience back to the 70’s, a time minus cell phones, social media contacts, Facebook and the onset of AI. Through the eyes of 20 something Linda O’Shea as our narrator/tour guide, the audience takes a look at four pivotal and poignant days for the O’Shea family, and while doing this we are treated to some outrageously funny occurrences and stories all members of the family experience.
This is playwright Katie Forgette’s fifth play the actor turned playwright has written. Forgette has enjoyed performing in fourteen plays at the Seattle Repertory Theatre and in numerous plays in other regional theatres in the Seattle area. The first play she wrote was “The O’Conner Girls” in 2004 and most recent is “Incident at Our Lady of Perpetual Help”, first performed in 2019.
The cleverly designed play begins with college student Linda O’Shea interacting with the audience with a discussion about the 70’s, remembering things and how they change over time and the relationship of family members in her life. Throughout the play, the other cast members will also interact with the audience and at times request a monologue to tell their version of what is happening with the issues the family is dealing with. The O’Shea family (Linda, younger sister Becky, mom Josephine, father Mike and Aunt Terri) will deal with what Linda calls Dominoes of Life, where one incident will lead to another and to another and so on and so forth. It all begins with Linda’s desire to go to Stanford College with boyfriend Buzz, who has become unreachable. This leads to mom, Josephine, asking, telling, Linda to tell her younger sister, Becky, about the physical changes she will soon experience in puberty. Linda throws in a dose of over the top “birds and bees”, which is recorded on a cassette player by Becky. This leads to Becky mistakenly playing this in her Catholic school classroom which leads to very strict Catholic priest, Father Lovett, becoming involved. Josephine finds out about this and has to decide how she will handle telling her husband. On top of this Aunt Terri lives with the family, having left her husband for the time being. Mike’s mother also lives with the family and stays upstairs due to an injury, but can be heard throughout the play. Additional dominoes will fall as Mike is hurt at work at the auto shop and Linda informs her mother, she thinks she is pregnant. All of this sounds really heavy, but what is amazing about this play is the wonderfully funny way Forgette handles each character’s handling of each issue as it arises, leading to a surprising conclusion
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The cast for “Incident at Our Lady of Perpetual Help” is perfect for each role and could not have been more precisely selected. Their timing, facial expressions, and physical humor makes the two hour play move quickly and the audience wanting more from the O’Shea family. There are a variety of lessons the play touches on as well, such as remembering the special moments with family, the importance of family supporting one another and remembering how your family has dealt with serious situations that arise for every family.
Playing Linda O’Shea is Samantha Gorjanc, making her San Diego theatre debut. She plays the excitable narrator tour guide with clarity as she goes between the maturity of a college student and still being a daughter living at home with her parents. Playing Linda’s mother, Josephine ‘Jo’ O’Shea, is Erin Noel Grennan. Erin is returning to North Coast Rep and has performed in regional theatres across the country. As Jo, Erin plays a stereotypical housewife of the 70’s, staying at home to raise the kids, busy with outside activities like her church and feeling she had to give up a chance at a career and make these sacrifices to live the life she now lives. You watch as Jo becomes a stronger person as she deals with all of the turmoil the family is going through and showing who really in in charge of the O’Shea household. Playing the young Becky O’Shea is Abbi Hoffpauir, making her North Coast Rep debut. Abbi’s character Becky is supposed to be approaching 13 years old and is caught between still being a young girl who plays with her dolls and approaching the teen years, and all this means with becoming a young woman, emotionally and physically. Becky knows movies and movie characters and relates a lot of what goes on around her with movie characters and movie lines.
Every member of this cast is outstanding, but the final two performers stand out even more, making the audience laugh almost every time they are on stage. Shana Wride played Theresa “Terri” Carmichael, Jo’s sister. Shana has performed in many plays at NC Rep. Terri is going through her own issues, living with the O’Shea’s at the present time, separated from her husband. Terri never had children, but Linda seeks Terri on occasion for advice. She is quick witted, edgy, says what’s on her mind and is a key to helping the family deal with Father Lovett and Betty when they threaten to tell Mike about the cassette and other issues.
Playing three key roles and playing each one to perfection is Tom Dugan, award winning playwright and actor. Dugan portrays Mike O’Shea, Father Lovett, and Betty Heckenbach. Mike is boisterous, in a funny way, and even funnier after he gets hurt. Father Lovet is pompous, arrogant and the audience is happy when Terri outsmarts him. When Tom enters the O’Shea home as the snooty church lady Betty Heckenbach, the audience roars. Three roles, three different characters, three audience favorites.
“Incident at Our Lady of Perpetual Help” is directed by Jenny Sullivan, directing at North Coast Rep for the first time. Her design team included Stage Manager and Props Designer Christopher M. Williams, Set Designer Marty Burnett, Light Designer Matthew Novotny, Costume Designer Elisa Benzoni, Sound Designer Evan Eason, and Hair & Wigs Designer Peter Herman.
“Incident at Our Lady of Perpetual Help” will keep you laughing, teach you something about the importance of family and communication, and bring back memories of the ‘70’s, if you lived during that time and even if you didn’t will teach you something about a time period that had a history all its own. The play will be on stage at North Coast Repertory in Solana Beach until November 17th. Tickets can be purchased at 858-481-1055 or go to www.northcoastrep.org.
