THEATER REVIEW- The Ordinaries ... in an awkward silence

When the white-faced-black-eyed Ordinaries, mother, father, daughter, sons, emerged squirming from inside of their centerpiece couch, I was sure that Beetlejuice was coming next. I squirmed in my seat dreading the nonsensical clowning, farcical humor and forced laughs. Instead, I was touched by the dark story of a family desperate to hide their skeletons in the cupboard, along with their daughter, Sarah, growing up too soon—played silent by a puppet and her puppeteer.

The real becomes the absurd in an effective way of illuminating the absurd within the real: striving to be normal literally becomes a contest with the neighbors; “putting your best face forward” is an actual family exercise in smiling; and the psychological profile of each caricature is delivered in beautiful, lyrical prose.

It is a creative way of storytelling, through the eyes of her brother, as witness, and the audience as jury in this tragic playhouse of parts