After a pause for the pandemic, this funny drama about family is worth the wait / Review

One year, almost to the day, after a brilliant comedic drama planned for the Hilton Head stage in 2020 was canceled due to COVID-19, the members of Lean Ensemble’s original cast have teamed up to present it virtually.

“Cry It Out,” by the distinguished playwright Molly Smith Metzler, is a phenomenal 90-minute video recording, a Zoom reading.

Lean Ensemble’s founding and artistic director, Blake White, introduces this timely performance, which is a gift, really, to all of us who are missing the theater, generally — and going to performances of the Lean Ensemble, specifically.

And further, we are heartened by his optimism when he asks us all to join him in “looking toward the day we will all be back in the theater telling stories the best way we know how!”

Back in 2020, 10 days before production, the remarkable cast gathered and began the preparations to perform this first-rate play. Director Amanda Sox and the cast — Thomas Azar, Lindsay Ryan, Taylor Harvey and Libby Ricardo, along with the stage manager and production staff — spent six hours each day for five days a week working toward opening night.

The production went through its designer run through at the Main Street Lean Ensemble offices on March 12. The next day, the technical rehearsal — when the entire cast and production crew go through the rehearsal on stage, props in place, analyzing from every angle — was supposed to happen.

Instead, White announced the production was canceled. On March 16, he announced the entire season would be canceled.

They broke down the set that day, a kind of outward, visual recognition of the finality of COVID and its effect on the future.

Immensely different from what was planned in the original staged format, the 2021 production of “Cry It Out” remains filled with the same exceptional direction and top-notch acting. Further it is efficacious, planned down to the gnat’s eyelash.

“Cry It Out” is a smart and nimble play about motherhood, babyhood, fatherhood and familyhood and all that they imply. Poignant and by turns hilarious, the challenges and life stressors are ones most will find familiar.

But performances of “ Cry It Out” offer far more than a production about motherhood and babyhood.

The story

“Cry It Out” is set in a backyard in a kind of blended neighborhood on Long Island. We meet Jessie (Libby Ricardo), an attorney married to Nate, a financial professional. The couple live in a modest duplex but hope that one day soon, they will buy a lovely home, and the duplex will become an income stream. Jessie faces questions about returning to work as she prepares to accept a law firm partnership, but she’s becoming more focused on the possibility of staying home to care for her baby daughter, Allie.

Lina (Taylor Harvey) is an “entry level” nurse who lives with John, who is currently working in a halfway house in Queens. They live with and pay rent to his mother in her modest home. From the beginning, Lina wants to be at home to take care of her baby Max, but she knows that she must return to work at the hospital in just a few days. Particularly disturbing for her is that this arrangement will require her to leave much of Max’s care to his grandmother, who has serious personal struggles.

Then, facing a different babyhood-motherhood-fatherhood dilemma, Mitchell (David Azar) and Adrienne (Lindsay Ryan) live in an elegant home with a coveted address and a view to the ocean from a hill just above Jessie and Lina. Adrienne is a famed jewelry designer, and her husband a successful businessman, who, by the way, comes with an important family and business connection. They are the parents of baby Livia. They are surrounded with nurses, nannies, assistants and housekeepers, but caring for their beautiful baby has become a challenge.

The critique

Playwright Metzler reminds us that the alterations to life that necessarily come with motherhood, fatherhood and newborns, truly modifies character and expectations. She helps us to understand that, guides us creatively, with a measured glance at our society today — the limited expectations, socioeconomic disparities, inequalities, uncompromising workplaces, limited gender classifications, elitist thinking and dramatic regard for entitlements.

Another Metzler surprise: Her plot is propelled by actions that may be observed or inferred. We become aware that much of the unanticipated outcome is based on Jessie’s and Lisa’s husbands and John’s mother. The entire lifestyle and staff at Mitchell and Adrienne’s home is story driven. Jessie’s law firm, Lina’s hospital, and the family expectations actual or implied, are significant players, too.

“Cry It Out” succeeds on so many levels. The writing, the directing, the performances of the cast are extraordinary. And the particularly bright side is that you can watch the production as often as you’d like, anytime you’d like.

Add to that silver lining, the Talk Back with many of the actors and production crew will be Monday, March 15 at 6 p.m.

Seeing the show

Lean Ensemble Theater’s Zoom Recording of “Cry It Out,” by Molly Smith Metzler, is available through March 14, 2021. It is offered at no cost, but participants must register. Visit www.leanensemble.org or call (843) 715-6676. At registration, you will be offered the link and the password.