GOING TO ST. IVES at the Crossley Theatre at Actors Co-op

Photo by Lindsay Schnebly

Neal Weaver  – Arts In LA

Lee Blessing’s taut and subtle two-character drama proves that a play with a small cast can deal with large issues. Cora Gage (Nan McNamara) is a British ophthalmologist, living in St. Ives, who is approached for treatment by May N’Kame (Inger Tudor), the empress of an unidentified African nation and the mother of its bloody, ruthless emperor/dictator. Gage’s liberal principles rebel at the idea of helping a member of a murderous and unscrupulous family, but she hopes that by agreeing to perform surgery on the empress, she can save the lives of four doctors the corrupt and vicious emperor has—presumably unjustly—sentenced to death.
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Now running through March 16.