YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – “The Lyons” is a perfect example of what the Youngstown Playhouse is looking for in programming its new downtown Youngstown theater.
It’s a savagely dark comedy, built on dialogue, and based on family dynamics. Or the lack of them.
Also, it has never been performed in the Mahoning Valley and could attract a decent crowd for a nonmusical.
A six-show run of “The Lyons” – that’s the name of the family in the play – opens March 20 at the Playhouse Downtown, the new theater in the Morley Building, 220 W. Boardman St.
It will be the first show at the venue by the Playhouse, which entered a contract for the 150-seat auditorium through its partnership with Ballet Western Reserve, which owns the Morley Building.
The Playhouse’s 450-seat main stage and 75-seat Moyer Room theater at its Glenwood Avenue location, will continue to be used.
The Morley Building site gives the Playhouse a third room that is just the right size for plays that require more audience space.
It also expands the theater’s visibility and makes it part of the revival of downtown, says John Cox, president of the board of directors.
The Morley space will soon get a full renovation that will include a highly visible sign on the front of the building.
The renovations were originally expected to be completed in time for “The Lyons,” but delays in finalizing the contract caused delays, Cox says.
The work should be complete in time for the second show at the site, “The Shark Is Broken,” in June.
Display boards with an artist’s rendering of what the theater will look like after the renovation will be set up in the lobby during performances of “The Lyons.”
Director’s Viewpoint
Connor Bezeredi is directing “The Lyons.”
He says the family dynamics on display aren’t exactly normal, and they get worse under pressure.
“Everyone is a glorious sort of contradiction wrapped up inside themselves, and the ways that they interact with everybody else can be really funny or really devastating because of that,” he says.
The four estranged family members are gathered because their father is on his deathbed. Their thoughts about each other start to spill out.
Terry Shears plays Ben, the father, with Molly Galano as Rita, his wife. Jeanine Rees and Eric McCrea play Lisa and Curtis, their children.
The cast also includes Christine Duster and Donovan Rubante.
“Everybody comes into this scenario with their own built-up feelings about each other,” Bezeredi says. “They’re thrown into this blender where their father is dying, and they have to figure out their place on a moment’s notice. That obviously doesn’t work, and we see how funny it can be. But we also see the way that can tear you apart emotionally.”
As the show ends, the family members go their own ways again.
“They – I think – choose not to see each other anymore, and it feels like the family has succumbed,” Bezeredi says. “But what I think actually occurs is that once they are all free of each other, they are finally able to grow.”
The dialogue is rife with dark humor. Bezeredi says it’s an integral part of the playwright’s technique.
“The thing about dark humor is that we usually use it to mask some other emotion that we are feeling intensely,” he says. “This play does a great job depicting that. And when the dark humor gives way, there are moments of genuine emotion. By the end of the play, we do find hope. Not in an overly sweet way… but in a way that makes you think, ‘these people might actually be okay.’”
Caustic Character
The role of Rita, the caustic and self-absorbed mother, includes a lot of sharp-edged lines. Galano has been familiar with them for years.
A fan of the playwright, Nicky Silver, she read “The Lyons” years ago and has even used Rita’s lines as monologues while auditioning for other plays.
“She is a beast,” Galano says of the character. “And a huge challenge. She is a very complicated one and walks that fine balance between ‘I loathe this person’ and ‘but I can understand her.’”
Rita’s personality traits are relentless, Galano says, and whistle through everyone else’s life.
“She wants things to be how she feels they should be,” Galano says.
The members of this dysfunctional family are desperately trying to get through life without making things worse. And that is where the play hits paydirt with audiences.
“[The characters] look at themselves and say, ‘am I going to try to be happy or will I stay stuck being miserable’,” Galano says.
An Old Favorite
The new downtown Playhouse venue is actually the old theater of the Oakland Center for the Arts, which went silent in 2015.
Many local actors have appeared in plays there and remain fond of the room.
Galano is one of them.
“It’s perfect for this play,” she says. “‘The Lyons’ is too big for the Moyer Room and would get lost on the main stage at the Playhouse.”
She’s happy to be back on old stomping grounds.
“Some of the favorite things I have ever done were on the old Oakland stage,” she says. “I love the feel of the place.”
The auditorium has fixed seats arranged in rows on a riser. They keep the audience on top of the action.
The room is bringing back good memories for Bezeredi as well.
“I am from Salem, but the very first show I did in Youngstown was at the Oakland, like 17 years ago,” he says. “It was the first time I had ever traveled to Youngstown to perform. So, it’s cool to be back here. I’ve always loved the space.”
Performances of “The Lyons” will take place March 20-22 and 27-29. Friday and Saturday shows will be at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. Tickets are $21, including box office fees. All seats are general admission. To purchase, go to youngstownplayhouse.org, call the box office at 330 259 9651, or buy in person at the box office, 260 W. Federal St. in downtown Youngstown, Monday through Friday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
“The Lyons” has strong adult language and adult situations and is intended for mature audiences.
Pictured at top: Jeanine Rees, Molly Galano, Terry Shears and Eric McCrea star in the Playhouse’s production of “The Lyons.”
