Gwyneth Strope has chosen a topic for her play that could be drenched in sentimentality or in bitterness, or both. It does neither. Being a serious play, In Bloom touches on both. But it doesn’t let either take over. In avoiding the excessively lachrymose and the excessively explosive, it finds a lovely middle ground of troubles worked through.
Having lost her husband, Dorothy is raising four teenage girls, each blooming in her own way, on her own. A delicate touch is required to cultivate those blooms, and Dorothy appears to have that touch, most of the time. Rosalind, 18, will be off to college next fall. Lorelei, 16, is ready to cut some ties and find herself. Camille, 14, suffers from some limiting medical condition that, if it was explained, I never did catch it; she mostly sits in a chair and reads. Her sisters take some mild care of her, though that dropped away as the play progressed. Eileen, 12, is very clearly the youngest, lively, inquisitive, rightly in her mind the center of attention, but not yet obnoxious about it. They are all blooming as they should.
But mother Dorothy has met a man, a very nice man, and the friendship is ripening into something more. Now Dorothy must not only cultivate her blooms but balance her care of her daughters with her own happiness. The older daughters to greater and lesser degree adjust their need for her with a recognition of her needs. Eileen finds it nearly impossible to believe that her mother will continue to pay any attention to her when she has that man to care for.
Director Brittanie Gunn has maintained with her cast the careful balance of the tensions among and within the characters that playwright Strope has created. Christina Rios’s Dorothy so focuses on what she is doing that she only rarely lets the strain show. Rhiannon Creighton plays Rosalind, the oldest and most mature of the daughters. Catherine Analla sometimes moves maturing teen Lorelei into her own world. Vaida Gruenloh’s Camilla convinces us that her medical problems will not have the last word. Rosario Rios-Kelly has the right energy for Eileen and focuses it well. She is excessively cute without being saccharine about it.
Sharing the stage with the other play in this year’s Tesseract Summer New Play Festival Red Curtain Rivalry, set designers Brittanie Gunn, director, and Taylor Gruenloh, producer, have created a simple, comfortable living room for Dorothy and her family, well lighted by Erin Riley. Rhiannon Creighton was the choreographer for the few fights, and Amy Riddle was the stage manager.
I admire Tesseract’s In Bloom, well and carefully wrought by playwright Gwyneth Strope and by the production.
—Bob Wilcox
Photo by Taylor Gruenloh
From the left: Vaida Gruenloh as Camilla, Catherine Analla as Lorelei, Rhiannon Creighton as Rosalind, Christina Rios as Dorothy, Rosario Rios-Kelley as Eileen.
