Homecoming

You could say that Lauren Weedman's one-actor, multi-character, autobiographical, 90-minute play starring herself -- Homecoming - is about her identity crises as a teenager. Adopted as an infant, Lauren lets us know she is growing up rather uneventfully in your conventionally functional middle-American family. Except for grandmother harboring suspicions that she might have been dropped on her head as a newborn, and her condescending older sister Lisa reminding her that she has two moms, the real one and this one, Lauren is otherwise content with her family. She even has a special fondness for the grumpy grandma and the sister, who can say, "I love you," and "Is that my sweater?," in one breath. Except for her irrepressible urge to tell everyone at school that she is adopted, at the drop of a hat, Lauren has only one request from her alternately flaky and fanatic mother: to get a picture of her "B.M." (birth mother) to keep in a drawer to look at every once in a while. Not only does that request set the eventually cooperative Sharon on an undercover mission with an "A.D." (assistant detective) to find Lauren's birth mother, but Lauren is suddenly enrolling in Hebrew school, joining the Black Student Union and dating an African-American. Lauren's pursuit of her cultural roots, an invitation for Lauren to embroider her narrative with Italian, Irish, Jewish, and African American dialectics, is humorously balanced by Sharon's attendance at group therapy sessions for adopted children and a visit to the Adoption Agency.

Blonde, petite, and energetic Weedman has devised a solo piece in which she embraces the quirks and mannerisms of her invariably familiar characters. That her monologue, replete with danced intervals, never seems self-serving but universal in its scope, says a lot about this minimally trained but naturally compelling actor. Weedman does what every playwright aspires to: create characters that live, interact, and make us believe in them. As her characters weave their way through her adventure to discovery, there is a sense that Weedman has made this a soul-satisfying tour-de-force. The play, directed with great latitude and exactitude by Maryann Lombardi, is touching without being maudlin and funny without pandering for easy laughs, though there are plenty along the ways.

Buffed and polished over the past three years, Homecoming was originally performed at Seattle Repertory Theater, A Contemporary Theater and Empty Space Theater, as well as a successful workshop at the Westbeth Theater Center. Homecoming will certainly have a special resonance for those who are adopted but will also those who simply enjoy a good (true) story, well told and acted.