Having seen a reading of Love Slips last year I can happily report that the play was much tighter in the full production presented at the Producers’ Club May 8-10.  It is story of the journey of an abusive alcoholic mother’s (Susan Gilman as Elaine) journey to sobriety and her relationship with her childhood friend landlord (Gus Ferrari as Ricardo) and attempt to reunite with her successful, estranged fashion designer daughter (Julia Genoveva as Vivian) and Vivian’s husband (Kevin Leonard as Charles). The play begins with a Gilman’s very realistic portrayal of a self-destructive alcoholic and her manipulation of her childhood friends, her landlord Ricardo and his sister (never on stage) Nancy.

The story pivots when Ricardo discovers Elaine comatose in her shower from a cocktail of drugs and booze. He takes her to a local clinic which is, unbeknownst to her or Ricardo, owned by Charles. When Charles discovers that Elaine is the mother of his wife, Vivian, he rather foolishly tries to get the mother and daughter to reconcile. Realistically, Elaine is not interested in changing her lifestyle and Vivian, although willing to forgive, is not willing to forget her childhood traumas.  When Elaine leaves the clinic, she has made no commitment to sobriety or change.

That soon changes as Elaine is affected by Vivian’s offer of forgiveness.  A somewhat unrealistic change, but certainly possible.  Over the next year, she attends AA, develops a relationship with a woman, gets a job and cleans up her apartment. When she finally feels secure, she returns to Charle’s clinic to try to reconnect with her daughter, Vivian.  There Elaine is informed by Charles that Vivian has recently died in a traffic accident.  That is probably where the play should end, but Genoveva tries for the melancholic, but optimistic ending where Elaine, Charles, and Ricardo, whose sister Nancy has died from cancer, establish a familial relationship that will carry them into the future.  The last two scenes are probably less than realistic but never slip into the realm of pure sappiness.  But the stronger ending is the open ended one at the end of scene 4 of Act 2.

Ferrari shows strength as a director with stage always kept just a little off balance and the frequent scene changes having the actors move on and off stage from the proper places and with efficiency.  He was assisted by the stellar work of the Stage Manager Ellis Rodenas who moves set pieces with the kind of pace that keeps the audience focused on the show.  If she worked unevenly, or too slowly or too fast the audience’s attention could have easily been lost.

Susan Gilman shows skill by moving Elaine from a completely dysfunctional human to a fully functional and stable individual.  Ferreri shows the right of amount of toughness and understanding as the owner of a Harlem apartment building.  Kevin Leonard is extremely solid as Charles, who must mix naivety with intelligence.  Genoveva hits the right emotional tone with Vivian but often forgets she is doing a play and speaks to the audience instead of the cast.  It’s a mistake that actors that have done a lot of work on camera often make.

Love Slips Through Our Fingers has come a long way and would keep most audience members involved as it is now constituted, but it has the potential to be even stronger with a couple of cuts.