There Comes a Time to Let Go and Move On

Pity the child for whom home is not a place of sanctuary and repose, but a battle zone where ignorant armies clash.

In his autobiographical “Unexpected Tenderness” at the Marilyn Monroe Theatre, Israel Horovitz weaves a poignant coming-of-age story about a young man mired in a pattern of rage and generational abuse, who must acknowledge the pattern before he can break free.

The place is Gloucester, Mass.; the time is the early 1950s. Archie Stern (Barry Thompson) is a nonreligious Jew, a truck driver who enjoys a flirtatious rapport with his missis, Molly (Marya Kazakova). Their only son, Roddy (Ben Savage), is a fine student, currently preparing for the finals of an oratory competition. Daughter Sylvie (Sarah Sankowich) is a Girl Scout and budding pianist. Ailing patriarch Jacob (Stefan Gierasch), a Parkinson’s sufferer, and his nurturing but long-suffering wife, Haddie (Erica Yohn), live with their son’s family. The elders bring a distinctly Eastern European flavor to the mix, but otherwise, the Sterns are a typical blue-collar clan.

Dig a little deeper, though, and you uncover hidden depths of dread. Gripped with paranoiac jealousy over his attractive wife, Archie is apt to explode into violent rages at the slightest provocation. Like Tolstoy, Horovitz understands that the most fascinating families are the unhappiest.

Yet Horovitz’s is no movie-of-the-week screed about the evils of family abuse. His memory play, narrated by both the adolescent and the grown Roddy (the older Roddy is played by Thompson), is heart-breakingly specific. Every character--even the abuser--is fully fleshed and richly sympathetic.

Director Hope Alexander-Willis, who staged Horovitz’s “Fighting Over Beverley” at the Fountain last year, is fast becoming a formidable interpreter of this prolific playwright. Abetted by an extraordinary cast, Alexander-Willis brings a sense of purpose and humanity to every pulse of Horovitz’s funny, painstakingly detailed drama.

Don Eitner’s threadbare but scrupulously clean set is also impressively detailed, a time capsule of a 1950s working-class home. Carlos Colunga’s lighting helps trigger the keen nostalgia necessary to the piece.

Much has been written about abused wives, but Horovitz gives us a harrowing, firsthand view of the effect that such abuse has on the young son who is witnessing it. Although a well-balanced look at the dynamics of abuse within a family, this is really young Roddy’s story. Savage captures the often comical but very real pain of a young man, yearning for a father’s love, who must utterly reject that father to move on to emotionally healthy adulthood.

BE THERE

“Unexpected Tenderness,” Marilyn Monroe Theatre (at the Lee Strasberg Center), 7936 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 3 p.m. Ends May 31. $15-$18. (213) 650-7777. Running time: 1 hour, 55 minutes.