Tracking an object’s journey across time – as it changes hands and impacts lives – is a familiar conceit from movies like The Red Violin and a prose subgenre dubbed the “novel of circulation”. Playwright Michelle Lowe builds her play String of Pearls around such a device: specifically, a pearl necklace whose peregrinations weave a clever and astute portrayal of the female experience. Currently on stage at Alumnae Theatre, the play’s interconnected stories track the necklace as it changes hands before ultimately finding its way back to its original owner. Director Barbara Larose brings this observant dramedy to life with a slick, sprightly staging that closes out the Alumnae Theatre’s regular season.
The circle of pearls first appears when 74-year-old Beth insists her granddaughter Amy wear it at her upcoming wedding. We flash back to its origin: when 39-year-old Beth discovered that a string of pearls can be an entirely different thing in the bedroom. Her lengthy, racy recollection is enlivened by interactions that set up various peripheral plot threads. We then watch as the pearls pass from Beth’s hands into those of other women, making unexpected appearances across nine scenes before they return unexpectedly to Beth. Each scene is largely a monologue featuring poignant, touching and even tragic moments that are laced with healthy doses of humour.
The play is written for a cast of as few as four women, each of whom plays at least six roles. Here, director Larose doubles the cast to eight actors, each of whom plays three to four roles. The ensemble – Shannon Pitre, Andrea Lyons, Natalie Stephenson, Sandy Ramdin, Georgia Findlay, Kim Croscup, Valérie Carrier, and Annie Massey – glides seamlessly from role to role, and each gets their chance in the spotlight.
Stephenson starts the pearls on their journey as Beth, the cardigan-draped grandmother seeking to pass on the necklace to granddaughter Amy (Pitre). But the pearls have disappeared . . . which provides the hook for the wide-ranging procession of monologues that track their unexpected journey. In the end, the story that leads us to the necklace’s final owner re-focuses unexpectedly on Stephenson in her grandmother role, along with a 300-pound lesbian grave digger named Cindy (Findlay). In Findlay’s hands, what could seem caricatured comes off as touching.
Pitre is particularly good as Kyle, a frazzled mortician’s assistant who is as weary with her job as with caring for her failing mother. Lyons mines the laughs as the harried daughter of a domineering mother who drips condescension (Massey) — and Croscup shows considerable range as a landlord-turned-unexpected-caregiver and a mother who befriends Beth at a Washington Heights swimming pool. Findlay strikes a poignant note as a basement tenant with cancer, and Ramdin is striking in her portrayal of an indentured servant fighting to bring her daughter from Tunis.
Set designer Theresa Arnaud has created a strikingly simple set with benches, round carpets, and a giant screen featuring evocative projections by Danielle Carey. The projection of a swimming pool, coupled with Mary Jay Boon’s lighting, is especially atmospheric in the story of a lonely wife from St. Louis transplanted to Manhattan. Rick Jones’ sound design and Arlaina Taylor’s functional costumes round out the simple but stylish production values.
String of Pearls combines comedic romps, teary-eyed episodes, and touches of melodrama into an engrossing whole. Although the pearls pass through many owners, in the hands of this talented cast, they always manage to shine.
String of Pearls runs until April 29, 2023. Reserve tickets at alumnaetheatre.com.
© Arpita Ghosal, SesayArts Magazine, 2023
