Review: Good Performances and Imaginative Direction Can't Save AT THE WEDDING from a Banal Script

Processing heartbreak at the end of relationships can be difficult, especially when looking for closure at your former partner’s wedding. In Bryna Turner’s AT THE WEDDING, Carlo arrives to her ex-girlfriend Ava’s wedding still carrying a torch for her former lover. Throughout the reception the audience eavesdrops on Carlo’s conversations with the bride and other wedding guests. 

AT THE WEDDING is the current offering from West End Players Guild. The one act, 75-minute play is directed by Anna Blair and features a small cast of seven actors. Blair, in an immersive piece of storytelling, treats the audience as invited guests at the reception.  

Blair’s places her audience directly into the story. She offers each guest a drink (water in a fancy cup) for the toast at the beginning of the play. The actors greet the audience with small talk as they enter the performance space. “Friend of the bride or groom?” one cast member asked.  

Her sound design includes a soundtrack of familiar music a DJ would spin at a wedding reception. The music bed, playing consistently through the show, adds a bit of wit, sarcasm, and irony to the narrative. The set spills off the stage with a downstage parquet dance floor, a gift table, and a storage room. On stage are a draped cabaret table, a buffet table, and an upstage bar. Carefully placed on each audience member’s seat is a handful of birdseed, wrapped in violet tulle and tied with a purple ribbon. Blair, like a meticulous wedding coordinator, has paid attention to every detail to make the audience feel welcome. 

As the play opens, Carlo, (Steph House) seated at the kids’ table, launches into a diatribe about how much a break-up wounds the heart. She’s devastated, bitter, unhappy, and scares the children. House conveys her character’s heartache while engendering audience empathy as Celine Dion's "All By Myself" plays in background. She taps into those shared common feelings we’ve all had when a relationship goes awry.  

House and the supporting cast work well together and have strong chemistry. Angela Healy as Ava and Nachalah Duclerne as Leigh both generate raw emotion as Carlo’s ex-lover and a wedding guest who is flirting with the jilted woman. Both have a palpable connection to Carlo. Healy conveys Ava’s disappointment in their failed love, and Duclerne stokes a fiery sexual energy trying to come on to Carlo.  

Alexis Monsey, Deborah Dennert, Kevin Hester, and Matt Anderson are amusing as the bridesmaid, the inebriated bride’s mother, a wedding guest, and the bartender. Each have a single scene with House and deliver solid performances. Monsey and House’s early scene is particularly funny as Ava’s friends who have a beef with one another. Dennert stumbles about in a drunken stupor as the bride’s divorced mother as she obsesses over her ex-husbands much younger date. 

West End Player’s AT THE WEDDING is a well-constructed show with strong directorial vision, good performances, but it is saddled by a muddled narrative. The talented cast works diligently to overcome Bryna Turner’s ponderous script. The early scene between Carlo and Carly (the bridesmaid) lays an expectation that AT THE WEDDING is a droll relationship comedy, but the scenes that follow lack the same wit and caustic sense of humor. Is AT THE WEDDING a comedy or a drama?  Turner’s writing seems stuck in limbo unsure of what it really wants to be. 

AT THE WEDDING continues at West End Players Guild through April 13, 2025. Tickets and more information can be found by clicking the link below.