Photo Source: Ed Krieger
No new details or factoids are to be found in writer-director Kathrine Bates' text, but the stories all of us know become imbued with new meaning when picked over by Rose, mother of a charismatic president, who, as a young woman, could not attend the college of her choice because her father, John Francis "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald, the first Irish-Catholic mayor of Boston, forbade it. Though her choices are limited, Rose defies her father when it really counts, marrying Joseph Kennedy against John's will. Nine children later, she struggles to maintain an identity while toiling at motherhood.
The assassination stories of JFK and Bobby strike tragic chords in the piece, but Bates' text succeeds mainly as a story of female oppression, secondarily as a rehashing of the mythic rise and fall of the brothers Kennedy. Though the Kennedy story is dominated by males, the emphasis here is on the female experience, and it's a credit to Bates that the offstage boys don't steal the narrative focus. When Joseph calls for the frontal lobotomy of the first Kennedy daughter, Rosemary, the message about what it was to be female, imperfect, and Kennedy in 1941 is appallingly clear. The performances are a bit uneven, the pacing smartly brisk.
Presented by Theatre 40 at the Reuben Cordova Theatre, 241 Moreno Dr., Beverly Hills. Nov. 28-Dec. 21. Mon.-Wed., 8 p.m. (Also Sun., Dec. 11, 2 p.m.) (310) 364-3606. www.theatre40.org.
