REVIEW:  Thursday, July 10, 2008                          The Producers Club, 358 West 44th Street, NYC

SHOES is a brand new domestic drama by KYLE SPIDLE, a young man who knows how to write realistic and honest dialogue.  He also possesses the ability to create some unique characters whose back stories he then skillfully manages to weave into the course of the play's two emotionally charged, and often quite fun, acts.  SHOES is a most absorbing tale that resonates from this playwright's heart. 

It involves a reunion of four members of a seriously dysfunctional and near-destitute family with the one member who has made a success of himself--although he, too, has his own cross to bear (his wife is seeking a divorce so she can move in with her Lesbian lover).  Mom and Dad (JULIE REIFERS and SAM ANTAR) are overly indulgent parents.  Their two grown daughters, Ally and Liz (JEAN ANN GARRISH and CORINNE LEE) are self-serving, non-productive parasites who have wrapped their parents around their fingers.  Mom and Dad cater to their daughters' every whim--be it monetary emotional, whatever! Moreover, their parents make excuses for all their daughters' shortcomings, which are many.  

When only son Ashton (Mr. SPIDLE) returns for a visit after two years and attempts to resolve the havoc his siblings have wrought on their parents' home and finances, he must contend with their hostility in the form of their foul-mouthed backlashes and recriminations.

What ensues are passionate and acerbically witty conflicts and exchanges with Ashton who is all the more determined to bring about change in the family's affairs. The comic undertones throughout the play combine in stark but successful contrast and proportion with the dramatic impact of the whole.  Dad's unexpected demise following his sixtieth birthday becomes the wake-up call for Mom.  Finally recognizing as truth all that Ashton has been expounding, she is given a most impressive and tear-soaked monologue by Mr. SPIDLE.  It comes immediately after the family returns from the
funeral and provides a beautifully registered climactic moment for Ms. REIFERS.  During it, Mom finally recognizes what their overindulging of their two daughters has cost her family and she resolves to set things aright or else!  It's a strong and clever moment, made more poignant and plausible by Mr. SPIDLE's sensitive writing and Ms. REIFERS' impassioned rendering of it.

Four of the five cast members are such naturals in their respective roles that they, quite literally,  resonate some painful truths about underlying family hostilities.  Ms. GARRISH as the self-indulgent, hypochondriacal Ally, and Ms. LEE as the dipsomaniacal and self-serving Liz are so convincingly wrapped up in their respective roles that you want to run up to the stage and shake them intoawareness of what they have done to themselves and their parents.  Their arrogance and foul-mouthed  are contrapuntally aimed at anyone who opposes them and that includes each other.  Ashton is the lone exception to their wiles.  He refuses to be taken in by them and engages them in both verbal and physical combat much to his parents' displeasure.  Why the parents
are so protective of the two women is revealed in the course of the action.

JOEY MURRAY has directed this provocative dissection of family relations with sensitivity and
compassion.

Rating:  3 1/2 WILLYS (out of 4)