STAGE REVIEW : ‘The Rose Shrine’ Has Local Color but Still Needs Work

The first new play offered by the New Place Theatre Company, which is based at the Norris Theatre in the Palos Verdes hills, has a nearby setting: Long Beach. In “The Rose Shrine,” a couple finally scrapes together enough money for a house on the other side of the hills, in Torrance.

The play’s most affecting moment is when we see the lights of the Pike, Long Beach’s legendary amusement park, go on to mark the end of World War II--while hearts are breaking in the foreground.

In other words, Nora Boland Ullrich’s play has lots of local color. It also has some engaging characters, too much self-consciously fancy language, a handsome set (designed by Robert L. Smith), and professional actors who don’t appear sufficiently rehearsed.

It’s the story of Maddy McNerney (Hope Alexander-Willis), a fierce, middle-aged, Irish-American grandmother. She’s a tough bird: an apostate Catholic and an outspoken opponent of any war, including the big one that’s raging. She hasn’t recovered from the death of her older son in World War I; she keeps a shrine to him in the living room.

Her younger son (Patrick St. Esprit) and his wife (Dendrie Taylor) would like to get on with their own life, but they can’t afford to get out from under Maddy’s wing.

The story is told by Maddy’s granddaughter Nonie, looking back as an adult (Stephanie Dunnam) and observing herself as a young teen-ager (Lisa Picotte). Her brother (Ian Romeyn) is about to go off to war, much to his grandmother’s horror.

It’s too bad the boy and his parents made up their minds about his enlistment before the play begins. He exists primarily to utter flowery and foreboding speeches to his sister before he ships out.

But the torment that Maddy goes through, as she learns of the boy’s plans and then tries to cope with a gentlemanly suitor (Will Macmillan) who’s also a Navy officer, is eloquently evoked by the script and by Alexander-Willis.

Maddy’s son and daughter-in-law are almost unbelievably juvenile. They got married in their mid-teens, and after nearly two decades, they still can’t take their hands off each other. It’s cute, but their maturing in the second act isn’t very convincing.

The pacing lags. Dorothy Lyman directed.

At Crossfield Drive and Indian Peak Road, Rolling Hills Estates, today at 2:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.; Sunday at 2:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. $19-$27.50; (213) 544-0403.