CLOSE TIES
Close Ties is about three sisters, and playwright Elizabeth Diggs recognizes that the only possible way to understand each one is by way of the other two. Her skillful dialogue exposes the perverse emotions that sustain this unholy trinity, emotions that create a taut little drama out of what could easily have degenerated into sentimental pap. But Diggs does not focus obsessively on the sisters. Rather, as Chekhov did in The Three Sisters–an obvious model for this play–she allows the emotional preoccupations of these young women to emerge gradually as they loll around at their grandmother’s summer home in the Berkshires during two lazy August days.
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These are not profound insights, but thanks to Diggs’s dialogue the characters seem to arrive at them honestly, giving Close Ties an emotional momentum that pulls the audience along. Even with a cast that includes several inexperienced actors, the Temporary Theatre Company’s production, directed by Suzanne E. Hannon, remains effective. The conflicts are so clear, in fact, that the play generates dramatic tension despite the flat line readings and nervous fumbling evident on opening night.
