'Morning' seems to fly with talented cast

By Joseph T. Rozmiarek
Advertiser Drama Critic

•	'Morning's At Seven 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays, 4 p.m. Sundays (but 6 p.m. on May 11), through May 11 on Hawai'i Pacific University's Windward campus Tickets: $14 general, $10 seniors, military, students, HPU faculty and staff, and $5 HPU students. 375-1282

Paul Osborn's gentle domestic comedy, "Morning's At Seven," hits the right character notes with a quartet of aging sisters who are struggling with unexpected changes to their domestic routines.

Joyce Maltby's veteran cast also revels in the opportunity to blend honest role development with buoyant ensemble acting. The remarkable result is a production with no false notes and an action line that never lets us down.

Osborn's play is set in small-town America of the late 1930s. Cora (Jo Pruden) has shared her home for 50 years with her unmarried sister Arry (Sylvia Hormann-Alper). Immediately next door is Ida (Sharon Adair), and a block and a half away lives Esty (Mary Frances Kabel-Gwin).

Beneath the placid surface, their relationships carry lumpy baggage, some hidden, some publicly tolerated. In the 24 hours encompassed by the play, familiar patterns are threatened by change.

The precipitating event occurs when Ida's 40-year-old bachelor son Homer (David Starr) finally invites his longtime girlfriend Myrtle (Becky Maltby) home for supper. If he doesn't decide tonight, the odds are that he'll never marry and move into the house that Ida's husband, Carl (John Mussack), built for him five years earlier.

This has Cora's attention because she wants that house for herself and husband Thor (David Schaeffer), who has spent their marriage being overly devoted to his live-in sister-in-law.

But Carl has picked this day to give in to one of his worst "spells," fussing about a misspent life and "going back to the fork" to take another turn.

Esty's pompous husband, David (John Hunt), also has decided that she's spending too much time with her sisters, and she must choose between him and independent living on their second floor.

What's a body to do? In their own styles, each of the sisters takes a hard look at reality, smooths out the wrinkles in her house dress and moves forward.

The back-porch screen doors get a workout with plenty of comings and goings, and the central backyard stump becomes the focal point for shared intimacies, revelations and new plans. This being a comedy, Osborn pulls together the loose ends for a satisfying ending without too much psychic damage, adding a surprise twist for good measure.

In this production, acting — and reacting — is key. The sisters are uniformly excellent, with Adair's slow takes and Horman-Alper's spoiled excesses earning the biggest bouquets.

The husbands play true to their types, with Schaeffer's uncomplicated middle serving as a fulcrum to Hunt's and Mussack's opposite extremes.