If you think your folks are a little nutty, you ought to meet the Sycamore family.
There’s Grandpa, who doesn’t believe in taxes, so he hasn’t paid them for years. And Penny Sycamore, who used to be a painter — still has the beret and palette — and became a playwright when a typewriter was mistakenly delivered to her doorstep. Penny’s daughter Essie is also artistic, with rather bad ballet as her chosen form.
Oh, and added eight years ago is Mr. De Pinna, a former ice delivery guy who, with Penny’s husband Paul, now makes fireworks in the Sycamores’ basement.
They’re all together in one house, getting by even though it’s 1936 — the middle of the Depression — in “You Can’t Take It with You,” the classic comedy opening tonight for a three-weekend run at Olympic Theatre Arts.
Veteran director Olivia Shea brought the 19-member cast together. Then, when one actress had to drop out, the flexible Shea stepped into the role of Penny Sycamore.
Penny has another daughter, Alice, played by the ebullient Charisa Silliman.
“She’s the only ‘normal’ person; she works for a big company in the outside world,” says Shea.
At the start of the story, we find Alice trying to tell her sweetheart Tony Kirby (Miles Carignan) that their relationship just cannot work. Her family is too wacky, she explains. His is too strait-laced.
Tony’s having none of that, and proceeds to persuade Alice that they should give in to their love. Let’s get married, come what may, is his feeling.
And so the newly engaged Alice fairly skips across the stage, spreading happiness. The rest of the Sycamores carry on with their activities: fireworks-making, ballet-dancing, play-writing.
Grandpa, played by real-life writer Aaron Elkins of Sequim, heartily approves of all this. He likes to see people doing what makes them happy, instead of chasing more and more money. Life is simple, Grandpa says, “if you just relax.” Then he takes it further: Life is “beautiful, if you let it come to you.”
Then what comes to him, and to the Sycamore household, are the uptight Kirbys. Tony’s mother and father, played by Kathleen Balducci and Ron Graham, walk in with looks of superb disdain. They can hardly believe their eyes.
And away we go into “You Can’t Take It with You,” which won the Pulitzer Prize for playwrights Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman in 1937. It’s a fun romp with two young sweethearts and two families — and Shea, who also directed this play 20 years ago, believes it is perfect for right now.
You can take your pick from the play’s themes, or go with both.
To Shea, one message is about spending your time on Earth doing what you love, even if you’re not the best in the world at it. Whatever your passion is, pour yourself in, and don’t worry so much about cash flow.
The other “Take It with You” message, Shea believes, is about acceptance.
“One of the reasons I wanted to do this play again is because the Sycamore family are so accepting, totally accepting of everybody who comes into their life,” she said. “They give unconditional love.”
Tracy Williams, who plays Rheba, the Sycamores’ maid and cook, affirms as much. Rheba can’t remember what she was supposed to make for dinner, and she’s not terribly focused on things like setting the table. But like Mr. De Pinna, the wayward ice man, Rheba is joyfully accepted.
“You come in the door,” Williams said, “and they treat you like family.”
Some people adopt stray animals, added Mr. De Pinna, aka McInnes. The Sycamores adopt the two-legged strays, “stray people who want to follow
their dreams.”
See this play, he added, and you just might decide to do the thing that reinvigorates your zest for living.
“You Can’t Take It with You” comes to the stage at Olympic Theatre Arts, 414 N. Sequim Ave., at 7:30 tonight and Saturday and at 2 p.m. Sunday. Curtain times are then 7:30 p.m. each Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday through Nov. 20.
Tickets are $11.50 for youth, $14.50 for OTA members and active duty military and $16.50 for general admission. To find out more or to make reservations, visit www.OlympicTheatreArts.org or phone the box office at 360-683-7326.
So how, you may be asking, does the Sycamore family make a living? The answer is simple and sweet, says Shea. They sell candy.
