By Eva Trieger
SAN DIEGO – Author Cheryl Strayed is best known for her novel, later turned into film, Wild. While that work is instructive on its own, it pales in comparison to this deeply personal and interactive piece, Tiny Beautiful Things. Scripps Ranch Theatre has delivered an intensely personal show that delves into all of the private spaces many of us would prefer to erase.
Advice columnist Sugar (Jyl Kaneshiro) tackles numerous life issues from every age and gender that challenge us, as an audience, to face. The topics run the gamut from navel gazing to life altering, yet Sugar provides each questioner with a sincere and often personal reply.
The show features only four actors who play a host of characters. Letter writers are identified only by number in the program. These multi-faceted individuals inhabit roles of men, women, youth and middle aged. They are representative of the demographic who read advice columns.
Sugar is a woman who has experienced quite a bit in her life through two marriages, children and a career. She offers advice to those who write in and query her about their own conundrums. She draws on her own wealth of knowledge to advise them. Her replies are often tear-invoking or difficult, but whatever hardship she has endured, is generally balanced out with a coping mechanism or a lesson on how to move forward. Prepare yourself to have your core temporarily flayed before Sugar models a path to wholeness.
Letter Writer #1, Max Macke has appeared in a number of our local theatres including New Village Arts, North Coast Rep and Moxie. His portrayal of a father who has lost a son is truly heart-rending. This show reveals Macke’s range of acting, at times cavalier and then eviscerated.
Letter Writer #2, Michelle Marie Trester, is also no novice! We have seen her at Cygnet, North Coast, Roustabouts and San Diego Repertory. Michelle’s character challenges Sugar on her identity and qualifications to answer questions from writers.
Letter Writer #3, Lisette Velandia asks Sugar provocative questions and receives supportive and actionable answers. This actor, though debuting at Scripps Ranch, has appeared at New Village Arts, UCSD and other area theatres.
Entering the theatre the usher offered me a packet of tissues. It was the best gift I’ve received in a long time. This play is incredibly intense and emotional, but it is every bit as rewarding and restorative. At the close of the play, Sugar offers the audience several caveats for how to live a life of self-acceptance, love and promise. The ending is supremely uplifting and hopeful and reminds us all that our journey on this planet is but a short ride and we have the power to create our lives to our satisfaction.
Tiny Beautiful Things runs through December 8. Tickets may be purchased at scrippsranchtheatre.org or by phone at 858.395.0573.
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Eva Trieger is a freelance writer specializing in the coverage of the arts.