Hostage

The reason to see the play is Tracie Lockwood's performance as the mom. You have no problem believing that here's a woman who would move heaven and earth for her kids. She balances a midwestern mom's directness and pain with a fierce determination. "Hostage" doesn't quite live up to the actual events that inspired it, but if you're a parent it'll tug at your heart strings.

Fluid staging… emotionally shattering. Lockwood's deceptively unassuming performance is a beacon of authenticity that lights the stage. The action seamlessly transitions from the Tehran embassy to the Timm home.

One of the most compelling, heart rendering productions currently showing in L.A. Tracie is dynamic as Barbara Timm, and L.A. audiences are once again taking notice of her strength as an actress.

Playwright Michelle Kholos Brooks does a superb job of getting into Barbara Timm's head and heart as she plows through unfamiliar territory with only one agenda – to protect her son in the only way she knows how. Director Elina De Santos takes this heart-wrenching and intense report of people under maximum stress and compassionately guides her principals through a minefield of emotions as they attempt to deal with the unexpected and impossible. Each character will remain indelibly wrought by the strong portrayals of the actors in the piece. Above all, talented Tracie Lockwood is remarkable and memorable as she brings Barbara Timm to life, warts and all.

Director Elina de Santos doesn't create the tension necessary or elicit strong enough performances (an anomaly for Skylight) to give the show enough thrust. Lockwood's Barb never hits the emotional punch to make her character grounded and complex. It's a quiet show, with almost no score, which is admirable as some shows with a lesser director might rely on histrionics to create drama. But despite its good intentions, Hostage falls a little flat.

The world premiere of playwright Michelle Kholos Brooks' HOSTAGE receives an absolutely stunning mounting by the Skylight Theatre Company. Brooks takes the situation of a mother's son held hostage in Iran and vividly, naturalistically, without propagandizing, exposes the insides of this particular mother Barbara. Tracie Lockwood gives a tour de force performance as Barbara, normally an inconspicuous, yet outspoken, mother like most in the Oak Creek, Wisconsin neighborhood; but a real pit bull when matters concern her hostage son.

With the 40th anniversary of the Iran hostage crisis just a year away and the U.S.'s nuclear deal pull-out making today's headlines, the time could not be riper for Hostage to debut, a powerful tribute to a mother who would not take no for an answer.

Powerful theater. Heartfelt and thought-provoking…TOP TEN - RECOMMENDED