Timothy Redmond and Eloisa Ramos

By Linda Ayres-Frederick
It isn’t often that you go to the theatre and have nothing to complain about. It’s even less often that you go and find yourself completely engaged in the story, laughing out loud and feeling like you sure are glad you got there, and you want to tell everyone you know that they have something delightful to put at the top of their “fun things to do this weekend” list!
Well, it finally happened, and it’s happening right now in Second Wind Production’s A Beautiful Home for the Incurable, playing at Traveling Jewish Theatre. Written and directed by Ian Walker, A Beautiful Home has just the right ingredients for a zany, well-crafted hit: terrifically delineated off-the-wall characters, perfectly portrayed by competent, emotionally-present actors, funny dialogue (yet not so clever that it’s unbelievable), a believable story line, an empathetic hero you care about who is different at the end of the tale after going through events that cause him to change, and (hold onto your hats) a beginning, middle, and end. Oh my! Have we struck an artistic mother lode here or what?
Bunny Temple, our hero, is an agoraphobe (won’t go outside) living in New York. Each week, he organizes a get-together of his friends: Lucy, a narcoleptic (when excited, falls into a state where her body is inert, but her mind is awake); Madilyn, a transient global (that means temporary) amnesiac (forgets she’s had sex); and Nick, an apraxic (cannot perform purposeful movements). And you thought your friends were weird! When they discover that Bunny is the victim of identity theft and about to be expelled from his home, the four decide to find the thief for themselves, relying on a trail of credit card slips to “re-create the man.” It’s amazing what one can learn about someone from what they buy over the internet.
While A Beautiful Home explores the issue of powerlessness through the eyes of four unique individuals who are relegated to the sidelines of society by their illnesses, it also offers a thoughtful examination of identity in the modern world, and the struggle many people face to free themselves from media images and preconceptions about beauty and self-worth. While often hilarious, A Beautiful Home shows us the shared wounds that create one’s personal identity, and therein lies the power of the piece.
Sitting in the dark with Madilyn, Bunny talks of those moments taken from everyone: “By what we’re afraid of… stolen by microwaves and fast-food, all these things that are supposed to make life easier, to save us time. That fast forward us to the moment we think we want. They’re just shortcuts. But maybe we’re skipping over all the important parts.” Pretty good for someone whose identity has been stolen.
We do get to meet the culprit! Showing up on the ruse of conducting a survey, the usurping Bunny, referred to as Temple, is a complete insult to humanity which is all the more annoying to our endearing Bunny. Not that Temple doesn’t have a good back story. Spit out by a failing dot-com, the thieving fellow has turned his bitterness into an aggressive act. And the “phobes,” working together, have a challenge to overpower this bitter Temple.
The ensemble includes Andrew Calabrese as Nick, Durand Ford as Temple, Mary McGloin as Lucy, Eloisa Ramos as Madilyn, and Timothy Redmond as Bunny. They are all well cast, don’t miss a beat, and are delightful to watch. Fred Sharkey’s set with odd-ball geometrically-shaped cut-out walls adds to the visual enjoyment as does Rob Siemens’ spot-on sound design.
A Beautiful Home for the Incurable — you simply must see this Must See!!
A Beautiful Home for the Incurable continues (Thur. to Sat. 8pm; Sun. 2pm/7pm) until July 29 at Traveling Jewish Theatre, 470 Florida St., SF. Tickets ($15-$25) call (415) 820-1460.q