FYT play looks at adoption

This review appeared in The Flint Journal on April 13, 2007

We are each products of heredity and environment. We may take these for granted, but what of the knowledge that these paths are divergent?

For Lisa Meredith, it comes with a jolt. She may be too young to understand why the people she calls Mom and Dad never told her that she's theirs in heart but not in biology.

"Secrets," a play by Joanna Halpert Kraus that opens tonight at Flint Youth Theatre, raises issues about adoption - and personal identity - through the story of Lisa, her parents and the woman who gave her up at birth but wants to touch her life again.

Capably played by Kathryn Mahard, Lisa is a well-adjusted girl who's a little rebellious - but what 13-year-old kid isn't? Her parents, Stephanie (Claire Shinkman) and Glenn (Ron Bailey), have made a happy household. But its security seems to vanish for Lisa with a telephone call from a woman (Kishe Wallace) who imparts information only her birth mother would know.

Despite pleas from her friend Sue (Mariah Gorman) to drop the matter, Lisa confronts the Merediths, who admit they should've told Lisa about her past before now. "I want to hear about my mother," Lisa demands.

"I am your mother," Stephanie replies. Unconvinced, Lisa arranges secret meetings with the caller, whose name is Micki. Micki's ardent activism is a "cool" pursuit that plays to Lisa's social awareness, and the girl begins to wonder if her future belongs with her newfound friend.

"Secrets" explores Lisa's identity crisis without growing melodramatic or saccarine, and the scenes between Lisa and Micki - who are unsure about how to regard each other - are especially well written and acted. We are left to wonder what makes us more of what we are, our bloodline or our bringing-up.

Clocking in at not much more than an hour under the direction of Walter Hill, "Secrets" does well to make all sides sympathetic. Lisa's anger is understandable, but so are Stephanie and Glenn's overprotectiveness and even Micki's tentative curiosity.

By Ed Bradley
Assistant Features Editor, The Flint Journal