Opening the House Welcomed With Open Arms

Love triangles, passion, humor, spite-these are the elements that make Opening the House, a new play by Robert Miller, a brilliant look into the lives of six people spending a week in Provincetown, MA. The Plymouth Player’s production, under the direction of Fran Page, whose production of The Laramie Project last year left audiences speechless, opened Friday, April 2 with enormous reception, and for good reason.The story follows a man named Andrew, played by Rick Morton (The Laramie Project, A New Brain, Godspell), who is preparing to open Wilde House, a bed and breakfast of sorts, for the summer in P-town. He invites along his boyfriend Patrick, played by Ryan Lane (Sweeney Todd), to come down for the week to see Cape Cod and have a little loving. His plans take a turn however when Andrew’s former love, Ethan, played by Tom Sisemoore in his PSU acting debut, calls looking for a place to stay. The three performers are top notch.The show opens with a detailed design looking through the bay window of Wilde House into the kitchen and sounds of the ocean coming from behind. Page, who also worked as scenic designer, created a true home feel meshing Miller’s characters and P-town together perfectly, complete with the board game “Gay Monopoly”. Andrew enters the house carrying to pet carriers with his new student/houseboy Donald, played stupendously by Christopher Doyle (The Sound of Music, The Bard and Broadway, Sweeney Todd). One might expect a cat or small dog to jump out of the carriers, but instead Andrew takes out a handful of house plants, sets them up downstage, and has a full conversation with them, an action that continues periodically throughout the entire show, even by Andrew’s best friend, Susan, played by Amanda Jennison, also debuting at Plymouth. Everything is going great until Ethan, who has AIDS, shows up and receives Andrew’s full attention, leaving Patrick neglected and everyone thinking Andrew is far too controlling. He acts like their mom. It’s a thought provoking story with some surprising twists and a lot of laughs. The dialogue is true and the writing just feels good. The performances are just as notable. Rick Morton and Ryan Lane build such a chemistry on stage that one can’t help but involve themselves in the relationship. When things start to break down between them, everyone feels it. At first their individual performances seemed unnatural, much like their quirky, plant-talking-to characters’ demand, but together they’re simply electric. Tom Sisemoore made a surprising first visit to the Plymouth stage. There were times when his character would do or say something that might normally be difficult to pull off, but there was rarely a time when his performance wasn’t genuine, especially in the later scenes. If it’s true that acting funny is harder than acting serious, than Amanda Jennison, Christopher Doyle and Holly McCarthy, who played Patrick’s ex-wife Lissa, have done their best. The three performers moved through emotions with ease; funny, serious, confused, bitter-it didn’t matter. Doyle put forth his man-about-town character with comedic poise, complete with personalized t-shirts that say things like, “heterosexually challenged” or “I’m not gay, my boyfriend is.” Jennison and McCarthy also strutted their stuff with the awkward moments of a blind date to a funny, but loving relationship. This play is outstanding. Though the characters may all be homosexuals, that’s not the focus of the story. There is a broader sense that anyone can relate to. Miller, a professor here at PSU, used techniques for storytelling that really ring true, and move a story about homosexuals away from the fact that they are homosexuals, and just six people tangled together for a week in P-town.