'Marigolds' examines family relationships

A person's family life has an influence on who he or she will later become.

This is one of the central ideas behind Paul Zindel's "The Effects of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds." The Acting Company will perform the play beginning this weekend and every weekend thereafter to Aug. 2.

"The play is an analysis on how someone can rise above their circumstances and become even stronger and better as a result of the kind of influence (he or she) gets from (his or her) family," said the play's director, Chris Collier.

"Marigolds" tells the story of a single mother, Beatrice (played by Ada Schmidt), who has two daughters, Ruth (Andrea Angrove-Kolb) and Matilda (Rachel Devitt).

Beatrice hates her life and isolates herself from the world, taking her self-loathing out on her two daughters.

As the play opens, Matilda is preparing to enter her experiment in a science fair: marigolds raised from radioactive seeds. Beatrice, however, constantly tries to thwart her daughter's ambitions; Ruth follows her mother's example and berates her sister as well.

Despite the abuse, however, Tillie manages to win the science fair, which creates even more problems for the already dysfunctional famliy.

The title of the play refers to the message of the play, said Collier. "One daughter does a science experiment with radiated seeds and, depending on their exposure to radiation, some plants grow bigger while others die. It's an analogy for the toxic mother's influence on her daughters: One thrived and one withered."

How influential their mother is — or is not — interested Collier in staging the play. "I've met a lot of people who impressed me with how they were despite their upbringing," he said. "My first wife, especially — she was a wonderful person, and I knew about the terrible things she experienced growing up, and I wondered how she could turn out (like she did).

"I was also attracted because (Paul Zindel) wrote from personal experience, which made the little lessons in the play more truthful."

Rounding out the cast, which is entirely female, are Barbara McCarty as Nanny and Heather Young as Janice.

"Good theater moves people, and makes you have different emotional moments and think about your own life ... and this is a really good play," Collier said.

"The Effects of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds"

Times: 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays; runs to Aug. 2

Where: The Acting Company, 815 B St., Yuba City

Tickets: $15. Call 751-1100.