“The Last Schwartz,” now at The Zephyr Theatre on Melrose Avenue, makes sibling rivalry fun.
In the play, a neurotic Jewish family gathers at their childhood house for their father’s Yarzheit (one-year death anniversary). In the process, the audience is taken on a journey revolving around bossy sisters, the travels of a spaceman, and a secret love child.
The play first focuses on domineering, know-it-all sister Norma (Valerie Perri), who immediately yanks at the audience’s nerves. Her incessant cries about her deceased papa and the hardships that Jews have endured over centuries are poignant at first but become tiresome.
It is understandable how this character is necessary for the progression of the play since she is the instigator of all the commotion, but listening to her constant criticisms of the other characters proves exhausting.
The character Bonnie, played by Pamela Gaye Walker, earns similar mixed feelings. As the needy wife who often goes ignored by the rest of the family, Bonnie both tugs at viewers’ heart strings and slightly annoys.
Bonnie yearns for some kind of attention, and this drives her to have a secret love affair with another character. Walker executes the distasteful role of the desperate housewife with ease but at times acts somewhat overdramatically.
As all this commotion between the main characters is taking place, their autistic brother Simon is planted at the front right-hand corner of the stage for a good 90 percent of the performance.
Dressed in a grey astronaut outfit, Simon gazes into a telescope. In a few scenes, the bickering among the siblings freezes and Simon takes the spotlight and illuminates his thoughts about the end of the world and the moon.
One would believe that an underlying message of Jewish tradition or the inevitable facts of life would become apparent through these scenes, but the dazed looks on the faces of audience members say it all; the scenes of Simon’s inner thoughts are ineffectual and incomprehensible.
What did prove endearing was Steffany Huckaby’s portrayal of Kia, the young starlet and Gene’s (the youngest brother) latest jezebel. Her vacant look and the painted smile that never seems to leave her face are both impressive and entertaining. Anyone who can hold the same facial expression throughout the entirety of a two-hour play deserves recognition.
Kia serves as a much-needed comic relief from Bonnie and Norma, and she counterbalances the seriousness of the Yarzheit.
The portrayal of such a socially impaired bunch is a safe choice for laughs. But “The Last Schwartz” attempts to be both thoughtful and goofy, and it is a lumpy mixture.
““ Vanessa Frigillana
E-mail Frigillana at vfrigillana@media.ucla.edu.