Over the River and Through the Woods

By Joe DiPietro

Directed by Renee Norris and Dominic Norris

Produced by Stand Performing Arts Ministry, Keller, Texas

Audience rating: PG-13

Running time: 2 hours with 15 minute intermission

Accessible seating: yes

Hearing Devices: no

Sensory Friendly showing: not available

ASL showing: not available

Sound level: comfortable

Noises or Visuals to prepare for: mild profanity

Reviewed by Stacey L. Simpson

I enjoyed attending opening night of Stand’s production of Over the River and Through the Woods, complete with Italian dinner served, dinner-theater style, overlooking a living room straight out of the 1980s. I was not familiar with the play and wasn’t sure what to expect. What I got was a sweet, satisfying experience that made me feel, made me think, and made me count the blessings in my own life. What else could you ask from live theatre?

The play centers on Nick (Carl Andersen), a single guy in his late 20s living in late 1980s New York City. An ambitious marketing executive during the week, Nick does his familial duty every weekend, leaving the city to attend mandatory Sunday dinner with his two sets of loving, and sometimes smothering, Italian-American grandparents in Hoboken, New Jersey. In a narrative aside that is used throughout the play, Nick tells us that his grandparents are firm believers in the three Fs: family, faith, and food, and live by the motto “Tengo Familia!” or “I have family.” Through Andersen’s sincere and honest performance, we see that Nick loves his grandparents but doesn’t really “get” them and attends these dinners more out of duty than preference.

The action takes place in the suburban home of Frank (Terry Johnson) and Aida (Debbie Hillaker), Nick’s maternal grandparents. Johnson and Hillaker successfully balanced their characters’ more exasperating tendencies with loving sincerity and hard-won wisdom.

Nick’s paternal grandparents, Nunzio (John Lattimore) and Emma (Judi Conger), live nearby and also attend Aida’s Sunday dinners. The characters they created were colorful, mischievous, and fun, bickering lightly and lovingly and engaging in hilarious banter with each other, with their grandson, and with Frank and Aida. Nunzio’s circuitous attempt to recall the name of a celebrity during an after-dinner game of Trivial Pursuit and Emma’s attempts to help him while Nick looks on, flabbergasted at their antics, are a comedic highlight of the show.

The central conflict of the play arises when Nick announces he's accepted a promotion that requires him to move clear across the country. The four grandparents, devastated by the thought of losing their grandson (other relatives have already moved away), launch into action to try to convince him to stay, including trying to set him up in a very unsubtle way with a nice Irish woman named Caitlin (Piper Daniel) in hopes they will fall in love. Daniel’s character is unexpected, a modern young woman who is sweet but not too sweet to call Nick out.

The play explores the chasm between the immigrant generation's traditional values and a younger generation's focus on career and modern life, as well as themes of aging, loss, and grief. Nick’s grandfather Frank poses the difficult question: what happens when parents give up everything to give their children a better life, but the life they create rejects the very values that the older generation holds dear?

Much of the heartwarming comedy comes from the grandparents' lovable and sometimes stereotypical Italian-American characters, their constant bickering, and their attempts to "force-feed" Nick and meddle in his life. But while funny, the play is not just a simple comedy; it also delivers moments of tenderness and bittersweet acceptance. The strands of the story are not neatly stitched together at the end. Rather, they land messy and incomplete and not according to plan, in the way life really is. (This aspect of the show reminded me of one of Joe DiPietro’s other famous works, cabaret musical “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change” about the challenges of modern dating, romance, and marriage.)

Mother-and-son directing team Renee Norris and Dominic Norris helped their actors find the heart and emotion of the work without sinking into maudlin sentimentality. Some early difficulties with hearing certain characters were quickly corrected by Sound team Thomas Bartke (Sound Mixer) and Shawn Lane (Sound Operator). The rest of the dialogue was quite clear, even as the actors moved around the rather large space. Sound Designer for the show was Dominic Norris.

As always, the production staff and creative team at Stand are not afraid to innovate when it comes to building a set. The decision to forego a standard proscenium set, which would have been the traditional (and easiest!) way to stage this show, helped bring the audience into the story and provided a great sense of connection. The “stage” was created by Renee & Dominic Norris out of strategic furniture placement on the floor level of Stand’s performance venue, with some audience members seated nearby on the floor and some onstage, looking down. The furnishings and set dressing, generously loaned by some of the cast and crew and their families, seemed familiar and period-appropriate and could have been in any suburban grandparent’s living room in the 80s. Lighting by Stephen Jakubik helped move the story from room to room and highlighted the narrative sections where characters broke the fourth wall and spoke directly to the audience. Costumes by Jenni Perkins were well chosen to represent the characters and the era. The creative team also included Rose Bailey as Stage Manager and Jonathan Willard as Light Operator.

Treat yourself to dinner with “la Familia” at Stand. You’ll enjoy a nice Italian meal, a beautiful evening of meaningful theatre that will put you in a good mood, and you can still be home and in your pajamas by 9:30!

On with the show!

Stacey L. Simpson