The Member of the Wedding at 1st Stage Theatre

The Member of the Wedding

1st Stage Theatre
1524 Spring Hill Road Tysons

In 1945 rural Georgia, the long, hot days of summer bring struggle, longing, and opportunity for 12-year-old Frankie Addams and her family's housekeeper Bernice Sadie Brown. Frankie longs to escape with her newlywed brother on adventures in the Alaskan wilderness. Bernice struggles to balance enduring the deeply entrenched racism of the rural South with her role as surrogate mother to Frankie and her 6-year-old cousin. Adapted from the beloved novel of the same name, this evocative, poetic coming of age drama explores the pains of youth and the meaning of family.

Thru - Jun 2, 2019

Thursdays: 7:30pm

Fridays: 8:00pm

Saturdays: 2:00pm & 8:00pm

Sundays: 2:00pm

Box Office: 703-854-1856

www.1ststagetysons.org

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The Member of the Wedding Reviews

Average Rating based on 3 reviews

Highly Recommended
Recommended
Somewhat Recommended
Not Recommended

DC Theater Arts - Highly Recommended

"...It says something about our times that two white Southern women writers, Harper Lee in To Kill a Mockingbird and Carson McCullers in The Member of the Wedding, still have something of importance to say about race relations in America. And it says something about American theater that these two works can still prompt conversations we still need to have. The one is in New York at scalpers' rates. The other is readily available and affordable at 1st Stage in Tyson's Corners-and it's well worth the trip."

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- John Stoltenberg

DCTheatreScene - Recommended

"...The Member of the Wedding is more interesting when it delves into the interior lives of its African-American characters, stifled in a racist, foreboding 1945 South. At the show's heart is Berenice (a transfixing Deidra LaWan Starnes), a loving but firm presence in Frankie's life who gets a few moments of her own to reflect on her interior struggles, in particular the death of her first husband. Berenice's own worries often feel more urgent than Frankie's coming-of-age concerns: in particular, the fate of her foster brother Honey whose pride and temper don't allow him to act obsequiously to the white men who surround him (Berenice and her beau T.T. Williams react more demurely to the casual, cruel racism of figures like Frankie's father, out of self-preservation)."

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- Missy Frederick

BroadwayWorld - Recommended

"...The heart of both the novel and the play is the "family" of Frankie, her six-year-old cousin John Henry West, and their housekeeper, Berenice. Interestingly, where the novel centers Frankie's narrative, the play gives more weight to Berenice, played warmly and wonderfully here by Deidra LaWan Starnes. As Frankie, Zoe Walpole dances along the line of someone feeling the pull of their roots while struggling to test their wings. The two share an easy camaraderie and the push-pull of their circumstantial mother-daughter like relationship rings true. Stealing several scenes on the night of this review was William Carroccio as John Henry (alternately played by S. Gabriel Mackenna). With a precociousness that vacillates between amusing and annoying, his animated facial expressions prove that we adults actually hide nothing from the children in our lives."

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- Sarah Murphy

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The Member of the Wedding at 1st Stage Theatre