REVIEW: PAINTING CHURCHES at the Park Square Theatre

We all have problems with our parents. Once Mom and Dad reach a certain age, the one thing everyone can agree on is that the parents drive us crazy. It's often been a topic in some of our most popular books, movies, and plays - some of them are great, some not-so-great. Others like Tina Howe's PAINTING CHURCHS, which opened Friday at the Park Square Theatre, are stuck firmly in the middle. Not bad, but not compelling enough to be great.

After spending years in their spacious Boston home, Fanny and Gardner Church are downsizing to a cottage one eighth the size of their old home. To help with all the packing, they enlist their free-spirited painter daughter Mags to sort through their things. In exchange, Mags will be able to fulfill a long-dreamt mission: to paint a portrait of her parents. But the return home quickly becomes more complicated as Mags strains to make her parents see her for who she truly is. But in order for them to do that, Mags must see her parents for who they truly are.

As far as family dramedys go, it's fairly standard. We meet the parents, a slightly kooky pair who lovingly bickers, before we meet the troubled child. Tina Howe's script follows that formula to a T - it's basically ON GOLDEN POND for the upper-class/intellectual sect. It's sweet and earnest enough, but it doesn't make enough strides towards mutual understanding, nor are the characters eccentric enough to work as an outright comedy.

So it's up to director Jon Cranney and his cast of veterans to elevate the material. And while everyone involved does an admirable job, nothing truly stands out. The play starts off with a bang, and Katherine Ferrand (as Fanny) and Richard Ooms (as Gardner) practically burst with energy. Along comes Angela Timberman as Mags, who's just as lively. Unfortunately, the energy doesn't spread to the audience, and after a while one begins to wonder why everyone in that family talks so loudly. Ooms and Ferrand in particular become less hyper and more real as the evening progresses, but Timberman plays Mags in the broadest way possible - rather contradictory for a daughter who's struggling to be heard.

There are moments of genuine emotion, and they do pack a punch - the penultimate scene explaining Fanny's behavior is the strongest moment in the show, thanks to Ferrand's frank performance. It's like the old saying, "Just when you think you know a person..." Just when you think you've got Fanny figured out, she turns on you. It's perhaps the only surprising point in the plot. And in that one moment, Howe becomes honest. Not jokey or hokey, but truly honest.

There's nothing really wrong with PAINTING CHURCHES, it's just not as memorable as it seems to be. It is a rather low-key, intimate evening - but it doesn't say anything that hasn't been before. The performances and directing are admirable and solid, but I suspect we've seen better work from all involved. When a play asks us to examine a mother and father and simultaneously laugh at their eccentricities and be touched by their love - you'd better be sure they're eccentric and loving.