Theater as Therapy

RoseMarie DeWitt; photo by Carol Rosegg

My first piece for the Los Angeles Times in a while is about Beth Henley's play Family Week, directed by Jonathan Demme for MCC Theatre. The buzz hasn't been great, admittedly, but these two were a joy to talk to:

"I just thought, 'what if a terrible thing happens in a family that's already had terrible things to deal with?' " Henley says during a break in rehearsal. "'How annihilated can you be and still crawl on the earth and want to survive?"

Director Jonathan Demme, sitting across the table in the rehearsal room, lets out a guffaw. "Wow, I can't wait to see that!" he says with good-natured sarcasm.