The Lansing area’s only professional theatre company is wrapping up its 18th season this summer with a comedy by Katie Forgette.
WKAR’s Scott Pohl goes Inside The Arts with a look at the Michigan premiere of "Incident at Our Lady of Perpetual Help" at the Williamston Theatre.
What is the incident from the play’s title? The players at Williamston Theatre don’t want to spoil the fun, but suffice it to say, it’s a story about an Irish Catholic family in 1973.
"This is about a family whose teenage daughter is having a particularly stressful moment in her life," director Karen Sheridan explained. "Looking back on it, it’s not at all, but from where she was sitting, it was a big deal.”
That daughter, Linda, is played by Sophia Psiakis. In the opening scene, a letter to her boyfriend sets the story in motion.
Along with Linda, the O’Shea family includes her mom Jo, her dad Mike, sister Becky and Aunt Terri, played by Sandra Birch.
“Aunt Terri’s in a little bit of some trouble with some domestic stuff on her side with her marriage, but she is staying with her sister and the whole family, her sister’s family," Birch said. "So, they’ve taken me in and are taking care of me. It’s not as heavy as I make it sound there! It’s a lot of fun.”
Sheridan says the play also touches on what it was like to be a woman in the early 1970s.
“The mother in the play is introduced right in the first four minutes,” she said. “They say she cooks. She cleans. She vacuums. She mows the lawn. She does the bake sales. She does the taxes. She takes care of the budget!”
In the script, husband Mike then chimes in to say that Jo has “never worked a day in her life!”
Sheridan said she wanted to direct this play after a friend suggested that she read it.
“He sent it to me, and I started reading it, and I started laughing right away," she said.
"The thing that I love about this is it’s a family story, and I think even though it’s an Irish Catholic family in this story, we have heard from audiences that they say it doesn’t matter. It’s about the dynamic of family.”
To illustrate that point, Sheridan brings up a scene where Aunt Terri is pouting after her niece has said something that’s dismissive of her.
"Linda, the teenager, says ‘This is what’s known as Catholic guilt…also known as Jewish guilt, Protestant guilt, Methodist guilt, atheist guilt,'" she explained.
"It’s that kind of humor where you don’t have to be Catholic to get it.”
"Incident at Our Lady of Perpetual Help" runs through August 3 at Williamston Theatre. The theatre’s 19th season will begin in October with the play "Every Brilliant Thing."
