“Over the River and Through the Woods”

Revelations about Nick’s boyhood? L-r, Dan Adams, Gerry Fuentes, Derek Rubiano, Jessica Likens, Leon Cohen, and Phyllis Nofts. Photo by Brad LaVerne.

The Torrance Theatre Company, under the auspices of their artistic director, Gia Inferrera-Jordahl, has done a very cool thing: They’ve snagged a vacant storefront in downtown Torrance and fixed it up remarkably well. Now it’s their new home for the four-weekend duration of Joe DiPietro’s “Over the River and Through the Woods,” one of the saddest comedies I’ve ever seen.

This single set production takes place during the early 1990s in the living room/dining room of Frank and Aida Gianelli (Dan Adams, Gerry Fuentes), the maternal grandparents of 27-year-old Nick Cristiano (Derek Rubiano), who buses himself into Hoboken from Manhattan every Sunday afternoon for dinner, and they’re joined as well by Nick’s paternal grandparents, Nunzio and Emma Cristiano (Leon Cohen, Phyllis Nofts). As Nick tells us in an aside at the beginning, his grandparents focused on three things: family, faith, and food.

As one might expect from a doting grandmother, food features prominently in DiPietro’s play, but the nail on the head really concerns family. “Tengo famiglia,” Frank Gianelli repeats, almost like a mantra, which implies more than just supporting one’s kin; it implies that the family is everything.

So what we have here is an unusual variant of leaving the nest. Nick’s grandparents try his patience, for they’re stuck in their own ways, are gradually fraying at the edges (forgetfulness, minor fender benders), and can’t make heads nor tails of new gadgets like VCRs and answering machines. Collectively, they smother Nick with kindness. Indeed, when he complains about how hot it is in the house this is a tangible sign that he’s being suffocated by warmth (If I may be permitted an aside of my own: Because the brick-lined room in which the audience sits is non-insulated, baby blue blankets are offered to audience members who may get a little chilly. I’ve never see such a generous offer in any other theater!)

It takes Nick a while to get to it, because his grandparents are constantly interrupting him or one another, but eventually he makes an announcement: He’s been offered a job promotion as a marketing executive in Seattle.

Needless to say, both sets of grandparents are stunned. What can they do to make him stay? Not much, Nick says. The following Sunday, after Nick has settled in for his customary dinner, there is a knock on the door and another guest arrives: a pretty girl named Caitlin O’Hare (Jessica Likens). Hey, guess what? It’s a setup. Nick’s furious… but he realizes that he’s fond of the young woman. Afterwards, on the porch as she’s leaving, he decides to ask her out for dinner. It’s pretty clear that she likes him, too, but then she declines – her reason being that Nick treats his grandparents too harshly.

Surprised at the rejection, Nick comes back inside, starts yelling, and falls down.

Act Two picks up a couple of days later. Nick is convalescing in his grandparents’ home. Since we’ve already been told that Caitlin is a nurse, we expect that she’ll come around for a visit, and sure enough she does. But while DiPietro’s play seems headed in one direction, it doesn’t necessarily end up where one might expect. Even so, the depth of emotion it reaches is rather impressive. There are lots of laughs, but this is comedy that can also put tears in your eyes. Maybe those weren’t really blankets that were being offered to us, but big blue handkerchiefs.

Perry Shields does a nice job of directing, and his best actors are the grandparents: they’re reasonably convincing throughout. Rubiano is a solid presence, but overdoes the intensity of his anger. It could be softened and still prove as effective, maybe more so. Likens is a charming presence but if she loosened up she’d seem more natural.

Although it’s unlikely that grandparents would cling to a grandson in quite this manner – a son, perhaps, but not a grandson – the play does explore several topics, chief among them being whether to stay close and settle for the merely satisfying  or to venture further from home if that’s where the opportunity lies. The result is a play that’s amusing and wistful, and pleasantly satisfying.

Over the River and Through the Trees is being performed Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m., through Feb. 27, at 1316 Cabrillo Avenue in historic old Torrance (between Carson St. and Torrance Blvd.). Tickets, $20. Call (424) 243-6882 or go to torrancetheatrecompany.com. ER

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