From Theatre Harrisburg’s Krevsky Center, local playwright Paul Hood and Director Francesca Amendolia bring to the stage “Pieces,” a dramatic, slice-of-life family story, pieced together like a jigsaw puzzle of dysfunctional generational dynamics and tragedy.
We meet husband Phil Blakeny (Andrew “Sarge” Dixon) and wife Kes Blakeny (Dana Kinsey) set amongst a melee of stacked furniture that triples as the family’s living room, furniture store and dream sequences. With as many pieces as I recognized in the pile of furniture, I’m pretty sure the set designers loaded their truck full up at my grandmother’s yard sale. And probably yours, too. The accumulation is a metaphor for years of unprocessed emotions and stored secrets.
Central to the family drama is a troubled marriage and Phil’s core struggle with failure in realizing his dreams. Not only does Phil fall short in providing for his family when business slows at his inherited furniture store, “The Dream,” but he also loses himself in the shadow of his father Graham Blakeny’s (John “Chick” Lee) legacy of success, back when “The Dream” served as a source of pride for the neighborhood.
Instead of helping Phil at the furniture store, Kes nags him about spending too much time working, and then she steps out with another man. Kinsey finds a balance with her lonely character, playing her both as vulnerable and likable, but still saying and doing annoying, selfish things, like cherry-picking the best furniture for herself.
Dixon takes a more subtle approach to his character, but his journey spans deeper than he wants to delve. He takes the audience along for a gut-punching dream sequence—comparing his life to his father’s expectations. My heart aches for Phil, wearing his wrinkled suit and stocking feet, juxtaposed with his father’s sharp-cut silhouette, complete with spats and a fedora. It was as if Phil didn’t feel worthy enough to step into his father’s shoes. His father asks him, “Is this the life you have or the one you want?” It’s a fair, yet layered question, and Phil struggles to answer without wallowing in the comfort that is denial.
Times are tough with the big box stores siphoning customers. As the store dissolves into a dream state, Phil doesn’t tell his wife that he can’t afford to pay their daughter Elé’s (Mia Thornton) college tuition. Thornton brings a self-assuredness to her role that lets the audience know that Elé will forge her own way, in both college and in life. No matter what happens with her parents, we’re not worried about her.
Playwright Paul Hood plants plenty of symbolism to add extra meaning, weaving past and present scenes together, skipping around in time. Although the dialogue is poetically thick at times when Phil and Kes talk about their love for each other, the trajectory of their love story takes the audience nowhere predictable.
When it comes to the comic relief this play absolutely requires for the level of gravity it contains, the stage crew stole the show. Instead of wearing traditional black garb and doing their darndest to blend silently into the background, furniture movers Tessa Eberlein (Fenton), Adelyn Heck (Adelyn) and Daniel Hutchins (Daniel) wore convincing work uniforms, clunked the furniture around, and hilariously groused at each other through numerous set changes. It would be tempting to see this play multiple times to hear the movers’ ad-libs from one show to the next.
An honorable mention for humor goes to Gerren Wagner for her playful portrayal of the mischievous Hota Pasquale, Kes’s best friend and go-to bad girl. Although her character is not as fleshed out as the others, Hota would still be a blast to hang with, that rare friend who plunks herself way deep into your business and doubles as family.
Most of the family scenes in “Pieces” feel laden with sadness and regret for a family haunted by disillusionment and mental anguish, yet simultaneously fragmented when laid against the different pieces that move in and out of a changing life. Amendolia’s note sums the play best, “Sometimes broken things cannot be fixed.”
Hood alludes to a “suitable, but not spoon-fed conclusion.” He makes the unpredictability work in this play, giving the untied threads he left hanging a true-to-life feel. It’s also true of good fiction—you keep thinking about it long after the story has been told. Sometimes the seams in the sofa aren’t neatly stitched together.
“Pieces” runs through Feb. 19 at Theatre Harrisburg’s Krevsky Center, 513 Hurlock St., Harrisburg. For more information on show times and tickets, visit https://theatreharrisburg.com/shows/pieces/.
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