Theatre 40 Brings Laughs, Warmth With L.A. Premiere Of Moving 'Incident at Our Lady of Perpetual Help'

Update - The production schedule for Incident at Our Lady of Perpetual Help has changed. Performances Thursday-Saturday, Feb. 16-18 have been cancelled. Performances will resume at 2 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 19; 7:30 p.m., Thursday-Saturday, Feb. 23-25 and at 2 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 26.

The incident has finally come to Theatre 40.

Postponed by the pandemic, the Ann Hearn Tobolowsky-helmed production of Katie Forgette’s affecting story of the O’Shea family Incident at Our Lady of Perpetual Help opened Thursday and runs through Sunday, Feb. 19 at the company’s Beverly Hills Theatre. (For details see below.)

The title is a tad misleading. The main incident takes place in the O’Shea family home in the parish and others follow, like falling dominos, according to the narration by main character Linda, a 19-year-old facing major life decisions, over the course of four formative days in 1973.

When Linda’s mother leaves it to Linda to tell her younger sister about the birds and the bees, the conversation (Forgette walks a fine line between explicit and innocent) finds its way to the parish priest. Father Lovett is not amused. He sets out to confront the family about "the corruption of their eldest daughter's soul."

Forgette’s poignant family story reflects a time when the church was all-powerful and families were known by their parish. “A time when public ridicule in a close-knit, hermetically sealed Catholic parish was the ultimate nightmare,” according to the narration.

Instant attraction

Theatre 40, where Hearn Tobolowsky is a member, presented another of Forgette’s plays, Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Jersey Lily in 2017. “So I read this other play with curiosity,” says Hearn Tobolowsky. “I was so surprised. It was so funny and well-paced; and it moved me. It pokes fun at family relationships and institutions—the Catholic Church—but in a loving way.

“I knew this was a play I would enjoy directing,” adds Hearn Tobolowsky. “It captivated me as something fun and meaningful, and I liked the characters and their interaction. They seem like a real authentic family.”

All In The Family

The characters, a family that fights yet sticks up for each other and that brings comedy and pathos, include:

-Linda (Ivy Kahn) whose memories, often challenged by other family members, make up the play’s plot. She’s hoping to leave town for a creative writing program at Stanford.

-Linda’s long-suffering, industrious rarely complaining mother, Josephine “Jo” O’Shea (Alison Blanchard). In her youth, she played piano, wrote concertos and won a scholarship she gave up to support her family.

-Her irascible father, breadwinner and disciplinarian Mike O’Shea (Patrick Skelton).

-Becky (Danika Hughey) is Linda’s na?ve but spunky younger sister. A fan of classic movies from the ‘30s and ‘40s, she fancies herself a junior version of private eyes like Philip Marlowe and Sam Spade.

-Rounding out the female members of the family is Linda’s aunt Theresa “Terri” Carmichael (Milda Dacys) a wise-cracking feminist who is going through a rough patch in her marriage. Furious over her husband’s thoughtless, domineering ways, she has her own perceptions of how things should unfold.

"The women ban together to save the family reputation and the situation the lead character finds herself in is even more relevant today," says Hearn Tobolowsky. "The play asks the question, 'what would be do when life takes a turn we didn't anticipate?'"

Following are excerpts from my interview with Hearn Tobolowsky about the joys of ultimately bringing the loving comedy to the stage in its L.A.-area premiere.

Linda calls it a memory play, though it’s not as intense as Tennessee Williams and more heart-warming like Neil Simon’s family recollections. How do you approach that?

Katie is saying that memories can change and even be false and unreliable. In the play Linda’s father looks a lot like imperious Father Lovett and busybody gossipy neighbor Betty Heckenbach. He had that much of an impact on her.

There are different levels of reality. There’s the life of the characters, the life of the characters in Linda’s memory and the actors who show up to recreate her memories. She gives the characters in her imagination instructions, and her family keeps interrupting, insisting on telling their side of the story.?Her father complains that she put him in a dress and Terri asks for her own monologue. She wants to smoke (because in 1973 everyone smoked), but Linda reminds her that audiences in 2022 will object to cigarette smoke in the theater.

There’s also the pain and the comfort of memories. At one point Linda says, “In later years, after my mother is gone, I will cling to these memories when I was kind to her. Those few moments when I wasn’t talking back or rolling my eyes at her ridiculous advice—advice that—even when it was wrong—was, you know, sort of right.”

Did you seek advice from the playwright?

Yes, we’ve emailed several times. We discussed the casting. I claimed that an actor of any age could play Linda as long as they had a college-age personality. An actor of about 73 would be the age now of Linda telling the story. Katie felt that would be too confusing for audiences.

The play has a kind of universality, yet it’s steeped in its Irishness.

I think everyone can relate to the cash-strapped family that’s just trying to get through; and the coming-of-age story of a young girl surviving her first major drama with the help of her family.

And the playwright has said the action “could be a city very much like Seattle, or Boston, or Milwaukee, or Cincinnati, or…could be in any city.”

Punctuating the play’s action is Mike’s demanding mother, malingering upstairs, heard but never seen, full of shouted complaints and demands she makes by banging a baseball bat on the kitchen ceiling.

I have a friend from theater school in Georgia named Teresa O’Shea, And I had this idea that I wanted a real O’Shea in the play. Through modern technology, she’s providing the voice. It’s kind of fun and feels appropriate.

The play has many of the family members directly addressing the audience.

I think the actors find that a lot of fun and get a charge out of it. They ask if anyone remembers the ‘70s and correct some of Linda’s memories.?The audience becomes another character.

This play is a big change from the last play you directed for Theatre 40 last year, David Lindsay Abaire’s heavy Good People.

It is. But I enjoy all of it, the serious and dramatic and comedy. I directed Steve Yockey’s Reykjavik with its murder and mayhem for the Road Theatre Company, and of course it’s nothing like this play. I’m drawn to plays that deliver some bit of truth in an interesting way that engages me, the actors and the audience.

The ‘70s are an integral part of the show with mentions of the music and fashion, the ERA, National Organization for Women, Betty Friedan and Shirley Chisholm and Our Bodies, Ourselves. The play also calls for some specific props especially important to the plot.

Yes, the prop guy had to find a cassette player with a cassette, since it’s a pivotal part of the story. The actresses are having a lot of fun with the typewriter. We had trouble finding a cupcake holder so we're using a modern-day replica.

Linda explains that this time was an analog world with no Facebook tweets or texting. She reminds the audience, “every gadget you think is so revolutionary today, will one day look like a tin can and string to your kids.”

We’ve already changed the line when Linda is talking about all the social media options. We took out the reference to Skype since it’s not a super part of the current scene.

What was the biggest challenge in bringing Incident to the stage?

Keeping everybody healthy and well-rehearsed. We were all set to go in 2020, and then everything shut down. We had a lovely cast, most of whom have come back, except our original Becky outgrew the role.

I think the pandemic closed a lot of productions and we weren’t the only ones who had to delay. This is a charming play and I think you’ll see it produced more and more.

What are the play’s lessons?

Imagine you were able to bring back loved ones and have them magically be present in the room with you. That’s this play’s experience. It’s meaningful and touching, but not overly sentimental.

I’m excited for audiences to see the play and see some reflection of their own lives.

People are feeling pessimistic about the world now and this is a little bit of respite, and a nice meal and very funny.

Theatre 40’s home is the Mary Levin Cutler Theatre on the Beverly Hills High School campus, 241 S. Moreno Dr., Beverly Hills. Performances are at 2 p.m, Sunday, Feb. 19; 7:30 p.m., Thursday-Saturday, Feb. 23-25 and 2 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 26. Tickets are $35. For reservations and information, call 310-364-0535 or visit www.theatre40.org. Free parking is available in the parking lot beneath the theater.?

Steve Simmons is an accomplished writer and editor who writes about a wide array of topics including entertainment. His successful experience at The Beverly Hills Courier and other publications set the stage for his blog. Contact Steve at [email protected] or 626-788-6734.

This article first appeared on my blog: www.stevesimmonswrites.com