Friday night will see the local public premiere of Home, I’m Darling, a 2018 play from Great Britain that may be seeing its first California staging at the Raven Theater. In fact, it’s unclear if the play has been staged much at all since its success in winning the Olivier Award in 2019 for best new comedy in its London production.
Certainly its timing, becoming available just as Covid shut down most public meeting places early in 2020, has a lot to do with its relative unfamiliarity. That’s about to change, at least in Healdsburg, as the Raven Players have enlisted director Caroline Clark and a capable cast of half a dozen actors to bring Laura Wade’s play to life.
Said Steven David Martin, “I loved the writing and the character development, as well as its intriguing, and timely, premise.” Martin says he spends “a lot of time reading and seeing a wide variety of plays year-round” in his role as artistic director of the Raven Players.
Now the title, Home, I’m Darling, may sound like a misspoken cliché, the kind Desi Arnaz or Dick Van Dyke might have said when flubbing his line. Indeed, the milieu of the play, at least at the outset, is that of the 1950s TV world of idealized family life where the aproned wife wielding a spatula commands center stage in the kitchen to produce tasty, nutritional meals for her loving husband and their 2.3 children.
Influencers
But scratch the surface, and there’s something else going on. The main character, Judy, fills the role of what has become known as the “tradwife,” the traditional image of the woman at home. Of late, such idealized roles have become the fodder of social media “influencers,” pointed out director Caroline Clark. “Especially on Instagram, it’s these very alluring videos of people doing performative cooking and cleaning and preparing of their houses,” Clark noted.
One such is a feed called Ballerina Farm. “You just see this woman in a farmhouse with little children just toddling around her, tugging at her apron while she handmakes mozzarella in vintage cookware,” said Clark. But the woman at Ballerina Farm—“ nestled in the fertile mountain valley of Kamas, Utah”—is the trophy wife of a JetBlue executive worth billions.
“Come to find out, this woman’s a billionaire, because this life doesn’t exist,” said Clark. “We don’t live in a society where you can really afford to do that.” She said the illusion of such a lifestyle is directed at women of her generation—Clark is 38, the same age as the woman in the play, which gives the director a more personal stake in the play’s themes.
“Yes, we yearn for a simpler life, and a perceived simpler time, which I think is very much the political climate right now,” she observed. “Oh, let’s take things back; it was just simpler, and it was better.”
But she quotes a line in the play that itself states, “Nostalgia isn’t what it used to be.”
Local talent
Clark is a new director for the Raven Players—she formerly lived in Silicon Valley and moved to Petaluma during the pandemic years. She connected with Martin a couple years ago, and the two hit it off. Martin felt she would be the right person to direct Home, I’m Darling.
“I very much wanted the female voice to lead the way, and she immediately came to mind,” he said.
It’s a relatively small cast, of four women and two men, an uncommon configuration in modern stage plays but one that allows local actors a chance to shine. “Judy, our lead character, is in every scene. This person we cast, Heather Berger, is doing it all, and she’s fantastic,” said Clark. Berger was formerly in Comedy of Errors at the Raven and the play about gun violence, If I Don’t Make It, I Love You.
Also in the cast are Christopher Johnston as the husband, Johnny, as well as Jeanette Seisdedos, Tom Gibson, Mary DeLorenzo and Tamara Brooks. “The music is so fun. The costumes, the set; it’s a delight to watch,” said Clark.
“It’s funny, but it’s also dark and biting and poignant. It’s all of those things,” she added.
Sounds like a good night of theater is in store for the audience of Home, I’m Darling, playing weekends at the Raven Theater until May 25.
Curtain time Fridays and Saturdays 7:30pm; Sunday matinee 2pm. Special Thursday, May 15 performance ‘pay what you can’; all other seats $25, students with ID $10.
