Lyman and Polly Wyeth are wealthy Repub­lic­ans enjoy­ing their lives in Palm Springs. Their chil­dren, Brooke and Trip, are at their par­ents’ place for Christ­mas for the first time in six years. Also stay­ing for Christ­mas is Polly’s sis­ter Silda. She’s been in rehab. Everything seems to be going well (at least, as well as it could be) when Brooke tells her par­ents she’s writ­ten anoth­er book. Only this one isn’t a nov­el, it’s about her child­hood. There’s a secret in the fam­ily his­tory, and Lyman and Polly don’t want it shared.

The script by Jon Robin Baitz is wordy and smart. There is banter as well as small indic­at­ors of the state of fam­ily rela­tion­ships all lead­ing to a dra­mat­ic end­ing. Dir­ect­or Ross Jolly has mel­ded a strong ensemble who use good Amer­ic­an accents to bring the script to life. Jef­frey Thomas plays Lyman. He’s a man secure in his wealth and enjoy­ing his retire­ment. Thomas plays the levels of emo­tion over the per­form­ance very well. Cath­er­ine Downes cap­tures Polly as the real power in the fam­ily. She’s bright and breezy with a light­ness of touch that encloses a core of steel in the char­ac­ter. Brooke is played by Michelle Lang­stone. She shows the des­per­a­tion and emo­tion­al tur­moil of the char­ac­ter with exact­ing focus while at the same time seem­ing com­pletely nat­ur­al. Paul Wag­gott plays Trip. His char­ac­ter is the peace­maker in the fam­ily. Wag­gott makes the most of his scenes includ­ing a par­tic­u­larly affect­ing emo­tion­al reveal in one. Emma Kin­ane is Aunt Silda, per­haps the most like­able char­ac­ter – even though she’s on ser­i­ous med­ic­a­tion mak­ing her a bit woozy. Kin­ane is very good in the com­ic sec­tions. She is excel­lent in the second half when her char­ac­ter becomes less com­ic relief.

The set by John Hodgkins resembles a lux­ury home, all wood and stone. It’s beau­ti­fully open and spare. It is well used by the cast who roam all over it although some of the audi­ence sight­lines are lost dur­ing the more power­ful moments.

Out­stand­ing. Deserving of large audi­ences.