"The play's about three brothers raised by wolves," says director Chris Fields about A Family Thing, the blistering new drama by Gary Lennon which has just been mounted by the Echo Theater Company. Both Fields and Lennon happened to grow up in the Hell's Kitchen section of NYC; their matching sensibilities mesh to good effect in the production at Stage 52.
Raw, brutal and violent are the adjectives that best describe A Family Thing, but it should be added that the lurid story it tells is also shot through with humor and flashes of love. The resulting mixture is a hyper-theatrical one: dangerous, challenging, but ultimately satisfying.
The three brothers are Sean (Sean Wing), a depressed young TV writer who happens to be gay; Frank (Saverio Guerra), a burned-out, alcoholic salesman; and Jim (Johnny Messner), a just-released felon who has urgent scores to settle with his siblings (and with the world in general). Jim's quest for revenge gives the story its narrative spine, its urgency and suspense as well.
Four subsidiary characters also figure strongly in the action: Joe (Darryl Stephens), an African-born young man whose compassion and love help turn Sean's life around; Louise (Elizabeth Regen) a hardboiled, horny social worker who goes to bed with Jim and tries to get him to control his murderous rage; Tess (Marla Cina), a part-time hooker who shacks up, much to her rue, with the frightened, suicidal Frank; and Liz (Andrea Grano), Frank's long-suffering wife. Paul Caramagno makes a brief (but unnecessary) appearance as Liz's brother.
Can the three long-estranged brothers overcome the conflicts and traumas that have turned them into enemies? Is reconciliation even a possibility between these angry, wounded souls? A Family Thing answers these questions in a bold, unsentimental but ultimately moving way. Snappily directed and acted, this is "little" theater at its best.
