| While dysfunctional families were once the stuff of tragedy, they're now the mainstay of theatrical comedy. While plays with large casts (more than 3) were once the mainstay of Broadway, now they're the stuff of Henry Jaglom films.
It's a bittersweet time for Helena's (Viveca Lindfors) extended family. Her huge house in the Hamptons, home to annual theatrical festivals (like the Eugene O'Neill) for so many summers, is up for sale. Reactions to this rite of passage range from wistfulness to good riddance.
Granddaughter Chloe (Martha Plimpton) smokes and drinks too much and, to her father Eli's (Ron Rifkin) consternation, dresses like a boy. Grandson Jake (Jon Robin Baitz) chronologues the family conflicts to fuel his successful playwriting career while his father/ festival director Ivan (Andre Gregory) ignores his son's success and homosexuality. Eli, intern George (Nick Gregory), who's sleeping with Chloe, and outsider, actress Oona (co-writer Victoria Foyt) angle for the same juicy role in Jake's upcoming play, which Helena is dying to direct.
Jaglom's casting is filled to the brim with inside jokes. Viveca Lindfors' character watches herself in Viveca Lindfors movies. André Gregory's character pulls the same kind of directorial stunts that André (playing himself) describes in My Dinner with Andre. Ron Rifkin's character has had the same kind of success in Jon Robin Baitz's character's plays as Ron Rifkin has had in Jon Robin Baitz's plays. Theatrical could probably identify many more.
Come join the witty, bitchy, incestuous party.
|
