Playwright Bess Wohl’s Grand Horizons is a thoughtfully complex story of love and aging and of the skewered perspectives between parents and their children. The sharp-witted script is also often laugh out loud hilarious with a few unexpected and impactful twists. Moonstone Theatre Company, director Sharon Hunter and a talented cast bring the dramedy fully to life with unexpectedly buoyant results.
Married for 50 years, Bill and Nancy have settled into a sort of routine that’s mostly silent — until Nancy asks for a divorce over breakfast, and Bill calmly responds OK. This simple, complacently sad moment kicks off a drama that is at times frustratingly, if comically, on point. Almost immediately, the couple’s grown children, eldest son Ben, his very pregnant wife Jess, and youngest son Brian, arrive to persuade their parents to work out whatever tiff they’ve had amicably.
Over the next several days, infidelities and dalliances from the past and present are revealed and secrets spilled and spoiled. The sons learn to see their parents, and particularly their mother, in a new light. Bill and Nancy share more than benign pleasantries for the first time in who knows how long, and we see the toll that repressed emotions and a lack of communication can take on an outwardly solid marriage. Ben mirrors his father in many ways, and his wife, a marriage therapist, is trying to remain helpful but is near her own breaking point. Brian sees his struggles with relationships in his parents; we watch him wrestle through the realization. The story arc is weighty, insightful and consistently funny.
Director Hunter does some of her best work yet. The performers have fully internalized and connected with their characters in a way I haven’t experienced in previous Moonstone productions. Sarah Burke is revelatory as the aging Nancy. Vibrant and unabashed, she’s unwilling to live within the mold her husband and sons have cast for her. As her husband Bill, Joneal Joplin is taciturn — a persistent scowl accompanied by a pleasant, noncommittal personality. He keeps secrets, even from himself. Jared Joplin, as Ben, has the genetic benefit of resembling the man his character has the potential to become. There’s an easy camaraderie between the father and son, though Ben ultimately shows he’s willing to change.
As younger son Brian, Cassidy Flynn is full of questions, energy and emotion, bristling with a sense of unrequited self-love that’s painfully funny and impossible to ignore. Bridgette Bassa is quite sympathetic as the quite pregnant Jess, Ben’s wife. As Bill’s girlfriend Carla and Brian’s almost hook up, Tommy, Carmen Garcia and William Humphrey are respectively smart enough to make a quick exit for self-preservation.
Grand Horizons is a touchingly funny contemporary drama for adult audiences. Director Hunter, a fabulous cast and perfect technical elements by Dunsi Dai, Michael Sullivan and Amanda Werre ensure a thoroughly entertaining production. The facts are rather straightforward. It’s the complexities in the characters and their stories that keep the audience leaning in for whatever comes next.
Grand Horizons is written and composed by Bess Wohl. Directed by Sharon Hunter. Presented by Moonstone Theatre Company at the Kirkwood Performing Arts Center (210 East Monroe Avenue, Kirkwood) through Sunday, April 2. Shows are at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday to Saturday and 2 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets are $15 to $40.
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