review - THE WOMEN OF LOCKERBIE - Paradise Valley Community College

the cast
Photo by Tiffany Marie Bolock

highlights from local critics reviews - (click link at bottom of each review to read complete review)

Click here for more information on this production that runs through November 12th.

"Deborah Brevoort's 2003 play The Women of Lockerbie dramatizes the personal impact the aftermath of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 has on a small group of people closely associated with the disaster. Though its focus is on tragedy and death, the combination of Brevoort's lyrical dialogue and the sense of beauty she brings to the play when delivered by the talented cast in Paradise Valley Community College's production results in a moving work of elegance....PVCC's cast, which is composed mainly of students, is quite good. While the play focuses on the Livingstons, and Jacqueline Anderson and Joey Whelan do well in portraying the deep sense of grief and parental anguish of the couple, it is the title characters who provide a refined eloquence and rich connection to the material. Brevoort uses this group of women as a Greek chorus who are almost always on stage as they offer a form of grief counseling throughout. BreAwna Harpe, Evann Essert, Mary Dentz, and Rachel Powell are exceptional as this group. They tell the heartwrenching, yet cathartic, stories of what they experienced the day of the crash, and how their remembrances form a way to heal the wounds, including their own. ...Larak Rogers provides a nice sense of humanity as George Jones, the U.S. State Department officer who serves as the play's antagonist...Jessica Whitman provides some much-needed humor as Jones' secretary. The only downside to the play is that the characters aren't really complex and some are written in a way that seems to force the actors to lightly go over the top to portray the quickly changing emotions of their characters. Director Gary Zaro isn't too heavy-handed with his direction, which lets the pace of the play flow in a natural, organic way, and he stages the action realistically on Erik H. Reid's beautiful set that does a very good job of creating the rolling Scottish hills....The Women of Lockerbie does well to portray the many sides, questions and conflicts that arise when something as horrible as a terrorist attack happens. ...While not entirely perfect, the play still proves to be a very cathartic experience.. " -Gil Benbrook, Talkin' Broadway (click here to read the complete review)