Other Desert Cities is about the Christmastime reunion of a family, when the middle-aged author and liberal daughter of prominent conservative parents, Brooke Wyeth (Melinda Parrett), returns from the East Coast to her parents’ home in Palm Springs. Parents Polly and Lyman (Jessica Powell and Dan Kremer) are thrilled to have their daughter, Brooke, and son, Trip (Matt Koenig), under one roof, the whole family together, including Polly’s sister, Silda (Kitty Balay), who is spending the holiday with the family after having another break in her sobriety.
The first half of Other Desert Cities winds up slowly, allowing viewers to warm to the collected Wyeth clan and get to know the family dynamic. The parents immediately assail the daughter, laying on a thick guilt trip over the fact that she moved so far away from them. It becomes apparent that Brooke is used to sparring with her parents—especially her mother—on a number of issues, from her lifestyle to politics, or her city of residence.
Brother Trip does his best to diffuse conflicts, especially those over the Iraq War, often comparing the daughter’s and mother’s arguments to the armed conflict. Lyman and Polly are a couple with a lot invested in the GOP, and it’s an obviously strained topic with their daughter. Lyman was a movie star who later became a Republican politician, a la Reagan, and Polly was ever the Nancy to his Ronald. There is obvious candor over the ongoing conflict between parents and daughter over politics, but other topics come up that reveal not all subjects are playfully tossed around.
The family discusses Brooke’s bout with serious depression, which left her hospitalized in the past. Brooke feels badgered by the interrogation she receives from her progenitors, though it’s obvious she knows it comes from a good place. But Brooke is troubled by something deeper: the contents of her new book set to release the next year.
Once alone with her brother, Brooke tells Trip that her new book isn’t a novel, like her last, but instead a memoir, which deals directly with a tragic Wyeth family secret, the story of Polly and Lyman’s eldest son, Henry. Henry was even more rebellious than Brooke, was avidly anti war, and got involved with a group of underground radicals who succeeded in detonating a bomb, killing one person. In the aftermath, Henry committed suicide. His involvement scandalized the family, and his suicide tragically wounded everyone in the family.
Brooke opens the wound again with the new memoir, in which she blames her parents for Henry’s death. Brooke’s position is confirmed by Aunt Silda—given hilarious character and timing by Balay—who reinforces Brooke’s characterization of her mother as the villain. Once Brooke finally confronts her parents with the book, all humor leaves the group, ending the first act with an explosion of emotion.
Writer Jon Robin Baitz weaves a fantastic story, which sets the viewer up with a set of assumptions that the very astute may see through by the end of the first act. In little less than an hour in Act 2, Baitz flips every assumption on its head, as Brooke learns the reality of the tragic episode in the family’s life. The ensemble cast arranged by PCPA shines under the direction of Roger DeLaurier, who lets the cast embrace the pacing of Other Desert Cities and slowly unwind the knots of angst and anger there, while relishing the moments of humor and wit.
What appears to be a simple enough set of a mini-mansion living room, designed by Tim Hogan, truly reveals a lot about the Wyeth family, even without them moving about it in it. Plenty of subtle nuance is also communicated effectively by the work of lighting designer Jennifer Zornow. Costume designer Robin Newell definitely gave each character a considerable amount of attention when creating their wardrobes, from Trip’s simple T-shirt with jean shorts, to Lyman’s suits.
PCPA’s production of Other Desert Cities makes for a great night at the theater, as it says much more with less. The two PCPA resident artists, Kitty Balay and Matt Koenig, actually provide most of the comic relief in the show, and their comfort in the Marian Theatre makes their place in the story just that much more present, as if you really were looking in on a mini-mansion living room in Palm Springs.
Arts Editor Joe Payne has his own desert-dwelling GOP affiliated family. Contact him at jpayne@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Sep 24 – Oct 1, 2015.