A Clear View of Family Negotiation

Probably one of playwright Lee Blessing’s more interior and personal plays, “Eleemosynary” is completely unlike his early baseball plays, and closer to his two-character “A Walk in the Woods,” about the intimate relationship between two international arms negotiators.

“Eleemosynary,” now being revived by the Pathway Theater Company at Irvine’s New Community Center, also deals with negotiators. This time, the negotiations are familial, between a purposefully eccentric woman, her beleaguered and bewildered daughter, and her lucid and very logical granddaughter, who has just won a national spelling bee with the word “eleemosynary,” which means charitable.

It’s a good word choice, because precocious granddaughter Echo is the only one of the three who is really charitable in the shadowed relationships of this fractured family. She adores the grandmother Dorothea, who has raised her, and longs desperately for her wandering mother, Artie, to rejoin them. The play focuses on Echo’s victories and defeats in this process, and it’s often touching, sometimes funny, and full of Blessing’s insights into the human condition.

It’s a shame that Pathway isn’t able to provide better production values, for the work of director John Haggard deserves them. The play is presented on a stage that is much too big for this intimate portrait, and the meager setting of three low platforms is unimaginative and distracting. Otherwise, Haggard’s handling of the sensitive subject is valid, insightful and dramatically sound. He skillfully handles the relationships between the women and balances their individuality with affection.

The play’s central figure is Echo, the schoolgirl who wants to be a speller for the rest of her life; she can’t believe that there aren’t adult spelling bees. Young Stephanie Carrie is marvelous in the difficult role. It’s the performance of a born actress, detailed with the swinging moods of her age, the joys of discovery and the rewards of accomplishment, both in her passion for spelling and her efforts to bring her mother back into her life.

Although Erika Dittner’s Artie is not as varied, and not as rich, she is impressive as the mother, particularly in those dark moments when Artie tries to deny her brilliant daughter and the love from Echo that Artie feels but can’t believe in.

Debbie Thoms as grandmother Dorothea gives the weakest performance, valid in its conception, but mostly on the surface, without passion and without charisma. It isn’t always easy to see her avowed desire to be eccentric as a reality. Her best moments are with Echo, and fueled by Carrie’s deep sense of reality.

* “Eleemosynary,” New Community Center, 2025 Alton Parkway, Irvine. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 p.m. Ends May 2. $12. (949) 460-2926. Running time: 1 hour, 20 minutes.

Stephanie Carrie: Echo

Debbie Thoms: Dorothea

Erika Dittner: Artie

A Pathway Theatre Company revival of Lee Blessing’s drama. Director: John Haggard. Scenic design: John Haggard. Lighting/sound design/assistant director: Trina Klossing. Stage manager: Connie Moore.