Nicky Silver puts a wrinkle on The Man Who Came to Dinner in his 2014 play, Too Much Sun, which is now in a West Coast premiere at the Odyssey, directed by Bart DeLorenzo (who has directed another play, Hir, at the same theater). In Too Much Sun, the outrageous guest who shakes up a household is Audrey Langham (the excellent Diane Cary). Audrey is an acid-tongued, bawdy diva of an actress who is introduced struggling through a rehearsal of Medea at a Chicago theater. Unsure (and contemptuous) of her lines—and under severe mental distress—she cracks and flees the stage, spitting insults at her unseen director. Scene Two transitions two days later to the sun deck (impressive set by Alex M. Calle) of a Cape Cod cottage where Audrey’s daughter Kitty (Autumn Reeser) and her husband Dennis (Bryan Langlitz) are vacationing. Kitty, a teacher, has long been estranged from her mother, who paid more attention to her career than to her own flesh and blood. Kitty is appalled to learn that Audrey means to stay on indefinitely while she licks her theatrical wounds. As for Dennis, he is equally dismayed when Audrey, without asking, commandeers his writing room for herself. How is he going to get started on the science-fiction novel he’s been “planning to write” for the last two or three years? Audrey’s huge, ego-driven personality—but above all her sexuality—also has an impact on Winston (Clint Jordan), a widower who lives next door. This uptight, wealthy WASP is putty in the hands of Audrey, who has burned through six husbands and numerous lovers. It isn’t long before he is dragged off to bed by her. There is a method to Audrey’s lustiness. Despite having known success as an actress—and having inherited a fortune or two—she has been profligate with her money and now must marry well to maintain her spendthrift ways. The geeky Winston loves the idea of being hitched to this sexpot…and of going on a honeymoon to India with her. He even starts to learn Hindi right there and then. Two subplots spin off from the main setup. One involves Lucas (Bailey Edwards), Winston's 17-year-old, pot-dealing son, and Dennis the blocked writer. Out in the nearby dunes, they meet secretly, have sex, and swear their love for each other. The second involves Gil (Joe Gillette), who works for Audrey’s New York agent and has been sent to Cape Cod with orders to bring Audrey back to the hated production of Medea in Chicago. Gil, a wisecracking Gentile who is thinking of giving up show-business, converting to Judaism and becoming a rabbi, has some of the best lines in the play (in fact, he almost steals it). In Too Much Sun, author Silver flits between light and dark, humor and tragedy, in Joe Orton fashion. His group portrait of people struggling to overcome their hang-ups and find a way to remake themselves is a touching one. But above all, it is the bigger-than-life Audrey who makes this play work as well as it does.
