Theatre Review: "The Sugar Bean Sisters" from the "Florida Times-Union"  

Review by Lee McDonald (October 22, 2010)

Run; don't walk to get tickets to see "The Sugar Bean Sisters".  This dark comedy about three sisters, who are bound by a brooding social and cultural heritage, sometimes too reflective of legacies left in southern families, is hilarious and poignant.  It is ridiculous and borders on the absurd but if you are remotely in touch with the dysfunctional relationships which may occasionally plague families, suddenly you realize the dialogue is all too familiar.  The play is written by Nathan Sanders and premiered in New York off Broadway more than a decade ago and has since been performed in over seventy-five regional theatres.  Sanders, a native of Central Florida, set the cast in the middle of a swamp house built by the hands of the sisters' father.  The sugar cane he tended seems to have a mind of its own and grows continuously though no one now tends the field.  Obviously in this play, you can "raise the cane back up when it's in defeat".  The sisters lost their mother while they were young, but her chair is vacant like much of the unfulfilled longing in sisters own lives.  The genre of a Southern Gothic tale plays up the supernatural in relationship to the natural world; reality is cloaked in mystery, motives are ambivalent, and good and evil are often confused.  The mystery of certain duality is present as a prophetic voice says, "Sometimes, you can't tell an angel from a devil."

Because the play is performed in "Black Box", the audience has a considerably intimate relationship with the actors.  ABET Art Director, Celia Frank, has oriented the audience in the cane field.  Your immediate impression will be the sense of smell - the sweet smell of sugar cane.  For me it was nostalgic.  Prepare for the sisters to take you on a strange ride which reflects unrealized dreams and missed opportunities, the tender reality of love in the midst of pain, and more than a degree of imperfection.  There is a submerged frustration, anger, and even violence that are often a part of the southern family legacies which we often prefer not to examine.  To be sure this is a serious play, but one that is hilariously funny and reminds you that many connections to family will push most of us to laugh to avoid the tears.

The line reflecting the real tension in the sister's relationship rings clear. "It isn't that I hated you, I just couldn't ever leave you."  -- Much like the past that can not be divorced from its effects on the present and its influence on future aspirations.  As one sister says, they are clearly, "up a creek in a chicken wire boat."

Under the direction of Caryl Butterly the ABET's, small, well rehearsed cast will delight and entertain you.  When you leave, you may suddenly realize they left you with something to ponder.  Absurdity sometimes invites a dialogue with reality, and this playwright clearly does just that.

The show opens October 22 to a sold out house.  Additional performances are October 23, 29, 30, 31 and November 4, 5, and 6.  To reserve your seat, call 249-7177.

"A hauntingly creepy delight... lyrically written... a standout... quality play...intriguing... impressive...wonderful... (a) story of decay, violence and transformation...Li'l Abner meets William Faulkner... (The Sugar Witch) is filled with weird, surreal, stageworthy dramatic moments and situations...a satisfying balance between gothic horror and humor!"
-Palo Alto Daily News