Stage: Don’t Miss Andy & the Orphans
Andy & the Orphans packs an emotional wallop that will stay with you for the rest of your life.
This month, Three Bone Theatre has Charlotte’s can't-miss show.
Andy & the Orphans, which opened last week at their black box theater in West End Studios, is a comedy about the ways a family stands by one another, and the ways it doesn’t. Written by Lindsay Ferrentino, this play’s steady flow of relatable inter-personality will keep audiences laughing out loud, at least during the scenes they are not holding back tears. Thanks to an extraordinary showing from the entire cast, Andy & the Orphans packs an emotional wallop that will stay with you for the rest of your life.
Andy & the Orphans
Three Bone Theatre at the Arts Factory at West End Studios
1545 W Trade Street, Charlotte, NC
Shows:
February 16-18 at 8PM
February 19 at 2PM
February 23-25 at 8PM
Set in contemporary New York, siblings Maggie and Jacob have reunited for their father’s funeral. On the way, they have to pick up their brother Andy from the group home where he lives as a ward of the state of New York. Andy has Down syndrome, and his brother and sister are still working out how to tell him that both parents have passed away, since they never told him their mom died, either.
Eddie Barbanell, whose resume includes roles in Workaholics and the 2005 Farrelly Brothers sports comedy The Ringer, reprises his off-Broadway role in the Charlotte production. As Andy, Barbanell delivers an unforgettable performance.
Though he spends most of his time watching movies on his iPad and headphones, Andy is a man comfortable with himself and his life. His siblings fret and argue about what to do with him, never recognizing his agency. Over a finely tuned character arc, we learn that everyone in Andy’s family has underestimated him and that he has suffered for it. The extent of Andy’s magnanimity is not fully understood until he reveals the depth of his frustration. As anyone who has experienced injustice knows, keeping that frustration to oneself is a voluntary kindness. Andy is saint-like, and easily the most pleasant character in the show to meet.
Kathy, Andy’s gabby caretaker at the group home, is the only one on stage considering Andy’s best interests. Following the law, she will not relinquish custody of Andy to his siblings, so she must come along on the road trip to the Montauk memorial service. Actor Vanessa Robinson is flat out hilarious in this role, inhabiting Kathy with comfort and brassy delight. One of the most delicious jokes in the show comes as audiences realize, deep into one rambling monologue, that she has not been performing a fourth-wall-breaking aside to folks in the seats, but has instead been talking the ear off of a gas station cashier.
Susan Cherin and David Catenazzo as older siblings Maggie and Jacob take us one level further to demonstrate Ferrentino’s grasp of family politics. The different rhythms of their separate lives keep them at odds. Reconnecting is a challenge as they careen from obstacle to obstacle in their journey. Still, their deep history and love for each other shines through interrupting, overlapping Altmanesque jabs and nags. They are both likable despite their blithe self-centeredness. Coming to like them is bittersweet as we see how their thorny affection for each other stands in stark contrast to their disconnection from their third sibling.
Deepening our understanding of Andy’s betrayal, Ferrentino includes a sequence of flashbacks to the day when Andy’s parents make the decision to give him up. At a crisis point in their marriage, Sarah and Bobby have joined a couples counseling retreat and are desperately seeking common ground. Audiences will both relate to and revile the decision they make in the most heart-wrenching piece of this show. As they move from secret resentments to sexual shame to fraught stabs at consolation, actors Sarah Molloy and Nathan Morris deliver guilt, grief, and desperation with naked honesty.
Audiences may marvel at what seems like ease with comedy, tragedy, and the spaces between, but it is honesty that this cast are masters of, and honesty that centers them as they navigate a broad emotional range with expertise. There isn’t a character on stage we don’t come to love; and, excluding Andy, there is not a character on stage who is not flawed.
The deepest level of genius in Andy & the Orphans is its author’s confident read on the audience. We see ourselves reflected on stage in our goodness and our shortcomings, and this dynamic reflects back to us once more. Just as Bobby, Sarah, Jacob, and Maggie underestimate Andy, the audience is bound to have underestimated Eddie Barbanell.
By the end of the show, however, nothing could be clearer than this: He is the most powerful element of an already strong piece of theater.
Details
Andy & the Orphans is at Three Bone Theatre at the Arts Factory at West End Studios
1545 W Trade Street, Charlotte, NC
February 16-18 at 8PM
February 19 at 2PM
February 23-25 at 8PM
Get your tickets now.
This show was so special and so eye-opening. Great write up!