By Wendy MacLeod
Directed by Sal Navarro
It's Thanksgiving, and Marty's arrival home is greatly anticipated by his mother, Mrs. Pascal, his twin sister, Jackie-O, and his younger brother, Anthony. He arrives during a hurricane, but worse than the storm is the fact that Marty brings Lesly, his fiancée. This ruins everything. Marty's engagement is a threat to the well-being of this family and a greater threat to Jackie-O, who has always wanted her brother for herself. On top of that, Jackie-O has just recently been released from a mental hospital, Anthony dropped out of Princeton, and their mother has a serious problem handling any of this. This is also a family severely affected by the Kennedy family, whose Virginia Compound makes them neighbors with the Pascals. Mr. Pascal left his family on the very day JFK was assassinated. Jackie-O and Marty made a game out of reenacting the moment of the assassination, which became a sort of foreplay to their incestuous relationship. So, Marty just can't marry Lesly! Jackie-O convinces Anthony to try and seduce Lesly and steal her away from Marty. Marty will then have to stay at home, which suits Anthony just fine as he is immediately attracted to Lesly. The only way he finds to seduce her, though, is to convince her that Marty and Jackie-O are lovers. In a series of short scenes, Lesly spies on Marty and Jackie-O doing their Kennedy reenactment; Mrs. Pascal catches Anthony and Lesly in bed; Lesly confronts Marty, who begs her to take him back and away from his family; Mrs. Pascal insists Lesly pack up and leave; Jackie-O pleads with Marty to stay with her; and Anthony tries to convince Lesly to take him with her instead of Marty. Finally Jackie-O goes over the edge and begins the reenactment game again, only this time with real bullets. Killing Marty with a shot to the head, she brings the play to a bloody, conclusive end.
The Chatham Community Players is excited to present Wendy MacLeod’s, “The House of Yes” as a part of their successful Play Reading Series. One Night ONLY – Sunday, February 11, 2018 at 7:00 at the Chatham Playhouse, 23 North Passaic Avenue, in Chatham. Tickets are $5 and can be purchased at the door. Sal Navarro directs.
“The House of Yes” is a play by Wendy MacLeod. A play about The Pascals, for whom the clock stopped with the Kennedy assassination, are shut in as a Thanksgiving hurricane swirls outside. Arriving ahead of the storm's eye are Jackie-O's twin brother, Marty and his fiancée Lesly. The obsessive Jackie is keen to renew her long-running incestuous affair with Marty, which is fine by the mother, who is still lamenting her husband's desertion, and by puppyish younger brother Anthony who immediately desires Lesly. The resulting battle over Marty becomes something of a class struggle between the Pascals' poetic insanity and Lesly's plebian pragmatism."
The Cast:
Debbie Bernstein as Mrs Pascal
Samantha Kaplan as Jackie-O
Scott Baird as Anthony
Gus Ibranyi as Marty
Sky Spiegel Monroe as Lesly
Light snacks provided, patrons are encouraged to BYOB