‘Rest in Pieces’ in Wilmington

A man has died. His widow and his son, a TV comedy writer in California, have come to the deceased’s apartment, preparing to greet mourners. She has always been critical of others, especially of her son, and he can’t take the carping. The fact that she’s just lost her husband is no excuse in his eyes; “I’ve lost my father!” he exclaims in exasperation. The two proceed to trade nasty insults, in the worst tradition of bad sitcoms. (Does anyone remember “The Battling Bickersons”?) Eventually the son shouts, “The wrong parent died.”

Back from the grave

Then comes a blackout and a new scene. On the same set, now we see the young man as before, but in this scenario the mother has died and the son has flown in from L.A. a few months later to check up on how his dad is doing. Here, surely, is an original twist, and from this point on Rest, In Pieces holds more interest. The husband still suffers from the same flaws (like laziness and sloppiness) that his wife had criticized in the opening scene, but now they strike us as lovable eccentricities.

The change of perspective shows a son who’s willing to cope with such foibles where his mother was not. A clever added touch is the father’s revelation that he’s dating a woman who was a close friend of his wife— a situation that the wife had arranged before her death. If only she had shown such thoughtfulness while she was living!

The final scenes provide yet a third alignment of characters. Now the mother and father mourn the premature death of their son from a heart attack. This part is, quite naturally, the least humorous. Treasure the time you have with your family is the message, and look for the best in each other, not the worst.

Playwright’s perspective

Playwright Bluestein is a stand-up comic who has written for TV comedy shows, including Dumb and Dumber. Rest, in Pieces had a staged reading in New York with Olympia Dukakis and Louis Zorich before this production. The script still needs work— which is normal at this stage of development— but Bud Martin’s direction was superb. The switch from the one scene to the next was handled masterfully.

Donna Pescow had the difficult assignment of playing the critical and unforgiving mother. Her best efforts couldn’t soften the woman’s harshness. Lenny Wolpe, that fine veteran character actor, lit up the role of the husband/father, with genuine familial affection. Frank Vlastnik, as the son, seemed to be a stand-in for the playwright (they’re both named Steve). Rest, In Pieces is fiction, of course, but some of it must have come from within the writer. His character harbored mixed feelings about his parents. Which is how I feel about Rest, In Pieces.