A close look at a mother’s relationship with her two children is the premise of the biting comedy beginning preview performances tonight at the Falcon Theatre.
“An Act of Love” is about a recently divorced man, played by Timothy Hornor, who is getting ready for his first date since the breakup of his three-month marriage.
Adding stress to the mix is his narcissistic, wannabe-actress mother, Alice, played by Susan Sullivan (“Dharma and Greg” and “Falcon Crest”) and his wayward sister.
Burbank resident Hedy Burress (“Boston Common”) plays the sister, Julia Sandusky, which is a role totally opposite herself, she said.
“She’s angry, rebellious and a bit of a mess,” Burress said. “She’s mad at her mom, at the world, mostly mad at her mother.”
Creating a character so different from herself takes a good imagination, Burress said.
“You have to listen to the clues the other actors give you,” she said. “As you rehearse, you slowly start to get a picture of this person you are playing in your mind.”
Sullivan gets to play a fun role, and she loves it, she said.
“It’s a funny but controlling role,” Sullivan said, adding that it’s similar to the mother she played in TV’s “Dharma and Greg.”
“This character is that character revisited,” she said. “I just love this character.”
Not only does Sullivan understand Alice, she said, she understands how she thinks, and when she first read the script she found she spoke in the same rhythm as Alice.
To get herself in the frame of mind to deal with Burress’ character, Sullivan said, she uses negative imagery, a challenge because Burress is a lovely person.
“I have to find things about Hedy that are annoying,” she said. “She probably has to do the same for me to try to make it real. But she’s a very lovely gal. I’ve had to work hard to find things to be annoyed about.”
But the actors aren’t the only ones enjoying the saucy banter, Director Casey Stangl said.
“It’s fun to do a comedy, especially one that has some bite to it,” she said.
And the cast is incredibly gifted, Stangl added.
