A Wedding Story

A frieze of wedding dresses along the back wall and voiceovers from Casablanca welcome us to Bryony Lavery’s winning multigenerational British dramedy about the pros and cons of love in the moment versus love of the eternal, Rick-and-Elsa variety. Hard-nosed Sally falls for exotic temptress Grace in a bathroom at a wedding, whilst proud Mum Evelyn (played by the amazing Pam Nolte) sinks into Alzheimers. Good acting and a quirky, tragicomic script save us from Maudlinville, especially once Sally’s squeamish, egghead brother Robin shows up to be of no use whatsoever, save possibly chronicling it all in a pretentious screenplay. Nervy scenes--like Sally and Robin overtly pretending to murder Evelyn--capture a satisfyingly subversive psychic reality, while a whoopee cushion and diapers nail the more physical kind. All except earthy Grace yearn for "an exit visa to indifference," but shared history and affection bar flight. No kid at any age wants to parent her own folks, but in the end that’s what most of us wind up doing—on that you can rely. MARGARET FRIEDMAN
Thursdays-Saturdays, 7:30 p.m.; Sundays, 2 p.m. Starts: May 14. Continues through June 7, 2009