Presenting memories of a family dramatically through photos and and narrative, Pictures from Home basically stages both as created and remembered by Larry Sultan. HIs father Irving and mother Jean are the stars, along with the son. Scenes show them interacting in Larry’s decade of visits from the late 1980s. It was to the San Francisco Valley home where he grew up but where memories of earlier family places and conditions remained vivid.
Vivid dramatic recall is as crucial as Larry’s presentations and book to author Sharr White. He arranges key moments, usually of conflict, in various settings of the family house. Projected photos of the parents, especially portraits of the father, emphasize what changes have taken place through the years. They present past and present, during each present scene, at the same time.
Onstage, the family’s struggles to control their images are the main cause of arguments, especially Irving toward his son’s work and his reasons for doing it. Kraig Swartz’s Irving is powerful showing how most of his past brought him to his views of his own self, his worth and why his actions have been worthy. He adamantly demands to assure how he and his life are regarded.
Gil Brady’s Larry rightly works hard to make his professional success and value of his photographing his parents acceptable to them. While always convincing to an audience, there’s still a question of if he can move his parents toward acceptance. Or can any of them meet the others on anything in any degree?
Jean Tafler makes Jean Sultan’s seemingly sudden self-affirmation relatively late in the play smooth and believable. One of Larry’s earlier snaps of his mother helps the transition. So does the play’s direction by Kate Alexander, who always gets her actresses to reveal their true nature without losing heart. In this play, she also steers the actors into being real family, not just portraying men of important contrasting views of life.
Projections arranged by Thom Thorpe on back and side dominate the play’s sparse scenery. Some scenes are played immediately off-stage and across the front, as up close as possible to the audience, enhancing realism. Andrew Gray’s effective lighting is especially of note here.
Costumes by Daniel Ciba reflect the times—and the need for a basically single one for Larry to explain years—simply and well. Nicholas Christensen’s sound is just right. All in all, technical work complements the excellent contributions of director and actors to a play that’s essentially a story being told.
