If you find yourself lost in the woods, you might turn to landmarks to guide you home; a tree with a particularly ugly knot, the remains of an old rock wall, perhaps. Similarly, if you find yourself lost in your life, like it itself were a vast and seemingly endless forest, you might turn to your family to guide you back to where you came.
“Morning’s At Seven” is a semi-autobiographical play by Paul Osborn – who is perhaps best known for penning the screenplay for the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical “South Pacific” – which, above all else, is a story about family; those whose lives, for better or worse, are intricately connected with ours.
We find ourselves, at the outset of the play, in the beautifully designed backyard of three of the four Gibbs sisters somewhere in the Midwest in the year 1937 as they eagerly await the arrival of their nephew Homer and his longtime flame Myrtle. At the same time, Homer’s father, Carl, suffers a crisis of identity and wanders off. Homer and Myrtle arrive and everything seems to be going fine until the two of them are left alone and until the husband of the eldest sister, Esther, arrives. Over the course of a single night and the morning that follows, it would appear as if everything is crumbling apart.
This play is a comedy and the humor comes from the trivial events of everyday life. Cora and her husband Theodore have shared their home with Cora’s sister Aaronetta for forty years and now Cora would like to take Homer’s house for herself; Carl has incidental spells of dread where all he can do is lean his head against a tree and suffer, his wife Ida helpless to do anything; Homer and Myrtle have been engaged for twelve years because Homer doesn’t know if he has the bravery to get married; Esther’s husband David seems dead set on making her live on the second story of their house, keeping a protective and ever-watchful eye on her without actually having to see her. These aren’t unrealistic circumstances by any means, but they are really rather absurd when they play out at the same time and that’s the joy of this play.
Simple, messy, undeterred and oftentimes straightforwardly disastrous: Life is the focus of “Morning’s At Seven” and together the ensemble – Greg Wood, Kathy Manfre, Becky London, Dale Hodges, Kraig Swartz, Tom Frey, Bridget Beirne, Lisa Bostnar and Ken Sheldon – shapes the beating form of this life with incredible energy and poignant charm. Each character is distinct and engaging in their own way and there isn’t a moment that seems dry or lifeless. There is a deep care felt for these characters and their silly squabbles and it is simply divine to see.
We may ask ourselves who we are, where we are, what we want, and often we might feel entirely directionless and awfully alone even in a room full of people, but family of some variety is always there to lend an ear to listen. That is the heart of this wonderful show which asks not what we would do for our family, but what we would do to cope with our family in all its unorchestrated glory.
Running at the Peterborough Players through July 28, “Morning’s At Seven” is a comical delight that is endlessly entertaining.
Cheyenne Heinselman is an actress and a playwright, a member of the International Thespian Society Troupe #7883, as well as an avid and opinionated supporter of the arts.