Family Secrets

Millions of people are addicted to soap operas and telenovelas, so a play based around that concept sounds full of promise.

There’s plenty of scope for drama and deceit, twists and turns, passion and fury, and all the other emotional fodder that keeps people glued to their TV screens.

Family Secrets by Italian playwright Enrico Luttmann is billed as a bittersweet comedy, yet it skims along in the middle ground, never tugging the heartstrings sufficiently nor rising up to make us laugh before plunging us back into emotional turmoil.

Dorothy Ann Gould plays Grazia, who whiles away her rapidly deteriorating days by watching endless soap operas. Sven Ruygrok plays her son Adamo, who writes soap operas for television and has just suffered a setback as a budding playwright. The plot treads a familiar route, with an ailing parent, the prodigal son still trying to find his place in life, and the inevitable clashes when they rekindle the past.

Ruygrok recently impressed audiences with his performance as young Alan Strang in Equus, and here he also has a commanding presence as Adamo. He chats amiably to the audience as he starts his journey back home to his mother, and gives his character a broad range of emotions.

Gould’s character is less believable, largely because almost every line is shouted or delivered with an aggressive, combative nature. The bitter, angry attitude never softens, even for moments where empathy or vulnerability would better serve the script.

The set designed by Kosie Smit features different areas so the characters can move in and out of the main living room, while the lighting casts an intimate mood over much of the proceedings.

At one stage director Alan Swerdlow has their conversation switch into a parody of the soapies that Grazia continually watches, making us chuckle with their melodramatic movements and over-the-top delivery that brings a welcome change of pace. But too often the interaction between them feels lacklustre, even though the dialogue is almost continuous. The conversation gradually drifts into a disappointing tediousness, broken by a few comic lines or a fresh moment of drama.

Family Secrets wouldn't have me tuning in again for another episode.

Family Secrets runs at Montecasino Theatre until 30 June then moves to Cape Town’s Theatre on the Bay from July 3-13. Tickets from Computicket.

Photos: Suzy Bernstein.