The Family Serenade Review

James Jennings continues a trend of one acts at his American Theatre of Actors with The Family Serenade. While not perfect, the show, focusing on memory and connection, found real heart.

The story starts with Daniel and Josie (played by real life couple Thomas Kane and Valerie O’Hara) in their retirement community, reminiscing about the past and their years raising their two children, Rodney and Silvia (Travis Bergmann and Allison Landi), lamenting about how far they are now from their kids and grandchildren. Their reminiscence is interrupted when Rodney and Silvia show up for an unexpected visit.

Jennings was both writer and director for this piece and he has created some lovely moments. Some fun banter (particularly for the parents), some sweet stories about family memories. The biggest drawbacks to the script are that so much of it is spent telling stories in the past instead of showing a story in the present, and some inconsistencies in plot points. Not that there is no conflict and story in the present – Daniel and Josie share a litany of complaints about the retirement community they’ve lived in the last 3 years with their children, who had no idea their parents were so unhappy with their living arrangements. But this leads to a few of the inconsistencies: over the past few months, Rodney has converted his basement into living quarters, apparently completely with the idea of his parents moving in – “a little birdy” had been talking to the kids it seems, who had just said they’d had no idea their parents were so unhappy. Daniel expresses displeasure at moving into a place he had previously been “rejected” from, despite Josie acknowledging they knew neither kid had had the space to take in their parents before.

Where the show shines, in both the writing and the performances, is in the relationships between these four people. They bicker and tease, they present a united front, they have a shared language of memories and experiences. All four performers have remarkable chemistry together, but this is of course especially true of Kane and O’Hara. The casting of a couple together in real life added a warmth and affection that might otherwise have been lacking. All four members of the cast do a great job.

The technical elements of the play are fairly straightforward. The lighting and set are simply and serve their job well. Two chairs back-to-back allow for a more stylized bit of staging at the top of the show that admittedly seems more stylized than the rest of the piece, but the set up does allow for good flow between different areas.

The Family Serenade is a sweet show that celebrates a family and their life together. At its core, it’s a wholesome glimpse into these people who really do care for and love one another. Sometimes, that can be refreshing to see on stage.