‘Estate’ entertaining despite sluggish pace

The importance of estate planning is emphasized throughout Manoa Valley Theatre’s production of "Dividing the Estate." The outcome is easy to anticipate, and the play continues on longer than necessary, but most of the characters are vividly written and the cast brings them to life in engaging style.

Written by veteran playwright Horton Foote and directed for MVT by Betty Burdick, this story of three generations of wealthy Texans bickering over the future of the family holdings meanders toward its conclusion with the speed of a waterlogged stump drifting slowly in the backwaters of a southern swamp on a late summer afternoon.

Stella Gordon is the matriarch of a family whose wealth goes back to the late 1860s. Those bickering over the family fortune are Stella’s children — daughters Lucille and Mary Jo and her ne’er-do-well son, Lewis.

Lucille and her son live within their means. Lewis, Mary Jo and her family do not. Lewis has borrowed $200,000 against his share in the trust. Mary Jo has borrowed $300,000. And both of them want more.

Does money exist to be conserved or spent? Should one live — and spend — for today, or plan for the future?

Jo Pruden (Stella) gives the show a solid foundation. No one bests Pruden at playing tart-tongued women of a certain age, but there is less emphasis on rudeness this time and ample opportunity for the subtle nuances she employs so well.

Suzanne Maloney (Lucille) is the dowdy, dutiful sister with a heart of gold. Timothy Jeffryes (Lewis) gives a haunting performance as a man demanding his freedom from restrictions that keep him from self-destruction; to comment on the full range of Jeffryes’ work would spoil one of the show’s surprises.

Gregory Scott Harris (Doug) adds depth as an elderly, minimally educated family servant who fears he is being "conjured" by a younger member of the staff. Russell Motter (Bob), who is equally adept at playing villains and good guys, brings elements of both types to his portrayal of Mary Jo’s real-estate broker husband.

Victoria Gail-White (Mary Jo) is spot-on as a shameless harpy who can segue instantly from a moment of pain or grief back to her financial concerns. Alyssa Dacey-Thompson (Sissie) and Briana Kuni (Emily) are silent scene-stealers as Mary Jo’s spoiled and frankly materialistic daughters.

Slow-moving though it is, "Dividing the Estate" will resonate with anyone from a family in which some members are financially responsible and others are not. It will also ring true for anyone who has had to deal with an acrimonious division of family heirlooms.

In short, the same issues and conflicts have played out countless times with families here in Hawaii.