In the 1950 film “Sunset Boulevard,” an aging silent film star hatches a plan for a comeback on the silver screen.
If you’ve seen the black-and-white film and Gloria Swanson’s hyper-dramatic performance as Norma Desmond, you’ll feel a sense of déjà vu watching Anna Sandor’s “Knock Loudly,” a play that opened last weekend in its world premiere at OnStage Playhouse in Chula Vista.
In Sandor’s play, long-retired film star Constance Crowne swans around, cigarette holder in hand, in her lavish home designed entirely in black and white and extensively decorated with paintings and pictures of herself.
Like Norma, Constance has been forgotten by Hollywood, so she exists each day in a lonely, dreamlike state, helped by copious glasses of wine. In “Sunset Boulevard,” Norma was attended to by her butler, but in “Knock Loudly!” it is Andy, Constance’s devoted husband, who fawns over her and refills her wine glasses.
Then the play takes a turn when Dee Dee, a 17-year-old Catholic school student knocks on the Crownes’ door and gets sucked into their reality. Constance takes Dee Dee under her wing to train her as an actress, which gives Constance a sense of purpose. Then Dee Dee’s outspoken mother Eva, and Hal, Constance’s estranged adult son from a previous marriage, show up, a natural disaster occurs and many secrets and heartbreaks are revealed.
It’s an awful lot to pack into 90 minutes. With all of the short, choppy scenes in the play’s second act, it feels like cuts may have been made. And with some late-arriving plot twists, the story feel unfocused and unfinished.
“Knock Loudly!” is the latest premiere at OnStage, where artistic director James P. Darvas develops and directs two or more new plays by local playwrights each season.
Wendy Hovland does a very good job staying firmly in character as the delusional Constance, and Fred Harlow is kind and sympathetic as her long-suffering husband Andy. Isabella Turner is sweet and direct as young Dee Dee; Cristina Gallo is fiery and protective as Dee Dee’s mom Eva, a strip-club dancer; and Markuz Rodriguez brings pain and intensity to the role of Constance’s angry son Hal.
Duane McGregor’s scenic design is excellent and features some hidden surprises, as well as some wonderful framed wall paintings by Eric Ernst Albert and Herbert Siguenza. Brad Dubois designed costumes, Jaden Guerrero designed sound and Ginger Chody designed lighting.
Michael Simpson and Vic Terry are credited for the films that play on a back wall in between scenes. The clips of actresses from Hollywood films of the 1930s and ’40s reinforce the idea that women are only valued by men and society for their youth and beauty, and once that is gone, they’re often discarded and forgotten.
‘Knock Loudly!’
When: 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 5 p.m. Sundays. Through April 27
Where: OnStage Playhouse, 291 Third Ave., Chula Vista
Tickets: $15-$25
Info: 619-422-7787
Online: onstageplayhouse.org
