Theatre 40 presents its fifth entry in their 2016-17 season of plays with the world premier performance of APRIL, MAY, AND JUNE, a dramedy by Gary Goldstein about a trio of sisters who meet after a number of years absence, attempting to get their recently departed mother’s estate in order, only to discover a long hidden secret.

Gathering at the modest home of their late mother are three sisters from the family. April (Jennifer Lee Laks), the eldest. May (Jennifer Taub), the middle child, and June (Meredith Thomas), the baby of the bunch. These sisters were only born a year apart, and lived in the same household until they left the nest for college and for family life. April recently ended her marriage after that relationship fell on its wayside. May’s marriage is very well intact, while June also ended her relationship with another woman as she lives within a different lifestyle. Now in their middle 40’s, these siblings are finalizing the closing off of the home they lived in for generations. Although the many years have passed, they are somewhat the same as they were as kids, in spite of the pecking order with April as the unofficial leader of the pack, May as the forever middle child, while June is far from being the baby. This reunion of theirs is rather bittersweet as they recall some of the lighter and darker moments of their domestic clan. While gathering some knickknacks that holds sentimental value and nothing much else, a series of letters are found, neatly bundled together as part of some kind of keepsake. Yes, they appear to be love letters that were addressed to their mom from back in the day, but they don’t appear to be written by their dad! It is at that moment where the sisters thought they knew about their family only to discover that their knowledge was rather incomplete.

This new play created by Gary Goldstein holds a high sense of humor with an awareness of mystery. Not a “whodunnit” kind of mystery, but an element that is more of a mystique, adding to the notion upon how family members can change of the decades while remaining the same since their so-called glory days. The three actresses that are featured in this production, Jennifer Lee Laks, Jennifer Taub, and Meredith Thomas play their parts as a near accurate perception of siblings of the “Gen-x” generation. They see their better years in a virtual real view mirror, but they still keep their eyes ahead of themselves, far different as their parents did while living at the same age. Those aspects are what makes this play very appealing. It depicts a slice of life that is more realistic, rather than played out as a series of one-line jokes found in post-modern domestic sitcoms depicting dysfunctional family members. Terri Hanauer directs this stage piece that shows off that the sisters that can bond together, giving each one the understanding of a family.

The set design by Theatre 40 rep set decorator Jeff G. Rack shows the rather spacious living room setting of the family home that has furnishings that are of decent shape, along with a collection of wall art, books, and the fore-noted tchotchkes that are not as hideous as one might find in a real home that’s been lived in for nearly fifty years!

APRIL, MAY, AND JUNE is an ideal play to take part of as a basic study on how family members can still get along, no matter how mom and/or dad never lived to what a “perfect” family could have been. There were the good times, the not so good times, and the events that were never seen or known about until long after the fact. That’s part of domestic life between being ideal and being “F-ed up!”

Rich Borowy for Accessibly Live Off-Line
March 20, 2017