We witness women doing what women do across this nation all of the time. They show up for their community when the community is in need.
This week, the Hollywood Progressive attended a new play,The Sandwich Ministry." Playing at the Spotlight Theater in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, Sandwich Ministry is a delightful play that takes the audience into the world of three women who volunteer time in their community but have work to do around their relationship with each other.
Written by Miranda Rose Hall and directed by Katie Lindsay, "Sandwich Ministry" takes place in a small town the morning after a huge rain storm. The play opens to the sound of thunder and torrential rains. The three women, played by Maha Chehlaoui, Jordan Hull, and Jayne Taini, enter into what looks like a community center or a church basement., a realistic setting that adds to the believability of both the dialogue and the premise. The actors and the writer successfully give the audience the sense that they are not sitting at a playhouse but instead are in a church community room, eavesdropping on conversations between three women as they prepare sandwiches.
The sound effects and visual effects also deserve mention, as they set the appropriate tone. Never overly dramatic, we witness women doing what women do across this nation all of the time. They show up for their community when the community is in need, in this case to prepare emergency meals for victims of an extreme weather crisis.
All the while, as they make the sack lunches, they talk. Although the set design is fantastic and the sound effects add to the realism, the real magic of this play is in the dialogue and the understated acting. Three women, three different ethnicities, three different walks of life, and three different stages of life come together. Transfixed, the audience is like a fly on the wall as the three women's complicated relationships are unveiled.
"The Sandwich Ministry" plays at Skylight Theatre, 1816 1/2 N. Vermont, Los Angeles, Fridays and Saturday at 8:30 p.m., Sundays at 3 p.m., and Mondays at 7:30 p.m. Infor and tickets here, 213.761.7061.
