Review: ESTATE SALE at Barrington Stage Company

Now in production on Barrington Stage Company’s St. Germain Stage, ESTATE SALE - in which a grieving son confronts the pain of his loss and the impossible task of clearing his deceased parents’ home in this World Premiere play.  Award-winning playwright and multi-disciplinary artist Keelay Gipson’s semi-autobiographical ESTATE SALE reveals how the material objects of our lives inform, reveal, and preserve our personal mythologies.

ESTATE SALE has within it a number of noticeable exceptions to standard norms’ theatre goers might be accustomed to.  As tickets are scanned, you are invited to enter through the stage door (typically sealed and inaccessible) as well as the typical doors for the auditorium  itself, along with an invitation to feel free to browse through the set designed as a  generic home, complete with artifacts all tagged with prices.  As patrons mill about perusing wares and settling into their seats, A young man approaches a microphone and begins to interact with the audience.  He actively solicits feedback from audience members making it seem as though we are about to participate in an immersive theatrical experience.  It will not spoil anything for me to inform that is not exactly the case.  That said, you will be taken on a brisk, non-stop, animated 70-minute journey (presented without intermission), that will make you laugh, quite possibly to remember, and almost certainly to think.

Like the, THE ZIONISTS, which recently closed on BSC's Boyd-Quinson Mainstage,  ESTATE SALE is part of BSC’s New Work Series. It is directed by Steph Paul.  Scenic Design is by You-Shin-Chen, Costume Design by Izumi Inaba, Lighting Design by Reza Behjat, Sound Design by Bailey Trierweiler.  Stage Manager is Amanda Blanco, Assistant Stage Manager is Maria Bella DiVittorio.  

The well-balanced cast includes Gillian Glasco as Beauty, Jason Lee as Executor, Blake Morris as Truth, and Christopher B. Portley as Youth.  All of whom present as extremely comfortable in their character as well as with each other, allowing audience members to be deeply drawn into the presentation as it unfolds.

I often look or ask for the take away message in a performance.  I feel this is not that kind of a play. ESTATE SALE is an unusual, interesting presentation that makes the viewer think - which (IMHO) is typically, the best kind of theatrical experience.  Playwright Keelay Gipson says "grief may feel like a blessing and a curse, it alternates between joy and pain.  Those two poles of experience remind me that life is a collection of contradictions.  Grief can both the devastation of loss and the celebration of life."

To post a comment, you must register and login.

Don't Miss a Boston News Story
Sign up for all the news on the Summer season, discounts & more...