Bhutan

"Cruel is the strife of brothers." Aristotle's aphorism rings true yet again in Daisy Foote's Bhutan,now in its West Coast premiere at Rogue Machine. The family in question lives in Tremont, New Hampshire, a grim working-class town whose main employer is a state prison. Mary (powerhouse performance by Ann Colby Stoking) is the matriarch of the family. Widowed in middle-age, she is a tough, hard-drinking woman with a realistic outlook on life. She knows she's blue-collar and hard-up but doesn't bitch about it. On the contrary, she's proud of her class and has no illusions about escaping it.

Not so her teenaged children, Frances and Warren (played, respectively, by the talented Tara Windley and Marco Naggar). Frances, turned onto serious books and music by her mentor, a cultured (and unseen) woman named Mrs Potemkin, dreams of putting provincial Tremont behind her and forging a more exciting life in a better place (symbolized by the Bhutan of the play's title). Warren dreams of moving up in life by marrying his rich high-school girlfriend.

Mary rips into both of them for their foolish, unrealistic goals. When they fight back and threaten to defy her, Mary explodes with rage and begins to bully them unmercifully (for their own good, she believes). The resulting -- and eventually tragic -- family conflict lies at the heart of Foote's kitchen-sink drama (spot-on set by Mark Guirguis).

Bhutan is well directed by Elina de Santos and features an excellent ensemble (which also includes Tracie Lockwood as Sara, Mary's lecherous sister).