Theater Review: 'Thicker Than Water' by Three Roses Players at Promenade Playhouse

The Three Roses Players theater group, based at the in North Hollywood, has joined with Venice Sky Productions to bring a new production to the in Santa Monica. Thicker Than Water features six short new plays with a common theme: family dynamics.

The cast, brought together by Maggie Grant, the Players' artistic director (who not only directs four of the plays but performs in the remaining two) features many shining talents.

Among them is Barbara Bain, who rose to fame in the 1960s TV series Mission Impossible for her portrayal of femme fatale Cinnamon Carter. As the family matriarch in three of the short plays in Thicker Than Water, Bain guides the audience through the many seemingly contradictory facets of aging: confusion, clarity, grief, loss and–a rarity not often seen on stage–sexuality. She deals with the latter as Margaret Longstreet in "Plenty Papaya" with a great deal of brio and humor, aided by the spot-on comic turn of Larry Robbins as her lover, Victor.

Comedy reaches farcical heights in "The Dinner Guest," where wifely Meredith (Molly Leland) invites her husband's (Christopher Heltai) coworker and suspected lover Valerie (Julianna Robinson) over for dinner. Robinson plays off Leland's paranoid wife perfectly, capturing just the right level of awkwardness and adulterous unease.

"Birthday Escape" makes time for the men, as two sons (Christopher Karbo and Christopher Eric Ruiz) forge a precarious peace with their father (Bob Ebinger.) Ebinger anchors the scene like a bowling-shirt clad version of Tennessee Williams' Big Daddy, a patriarch confined by familial expectations.

It's no surprise that Thicker Than Water opened to sell-out audiences its opening weekend. The production only runs on weekends through May 22; catch it while you can.

Thicker Than Water, Santa Monica Promenade Playhouse, 1404 3rd Street Promenade, Santa Monica CA 90401. Runs through May 22, Fridays/Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets: Plays 411 at 323-960-5772 or by clicking here.