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Theater Review: DOLORES (Stephanie Feury Studio Theatre)
by Ernest Kearney | July 20, 2025
in Los Angeles, Theater
A KNOCK AT THE HEART
With her staging of Dolores, Edward Allan Baker’s two-woman drama about domestic violence, director Stephanie Feury—at the theatre that bears her name—has placed on display a small gem of immense worth. Deedee Woche is Sandra, the married sister struggling to hold her lower-middle-class Providence family together. Davonna Dehay is the borderline alcoholic Dolores, who barges in on her sister with fresh bruises from a recent beating by the latest in a long line of abusive husbands.
Woche is staggering as the sister who believes her emotional lifeboat cannot survive—nor possibly even her family—if she lets her sister in it again. She fills every refusal to her sister with a cold resolve that burns with self-hatred. Dehay is nothing short of amazing as she fights not to save her life, but the love of her sister.
The gritty set by Matthew Brown provides the perfect context for the raw naturalism of Baker’s dialogue, while Feury fosters the commitment of Woche and Dehay to go to the darkest of places, creating a production that feels disturbingly voyeuristic. Baker once claimed that the people he wrote about “don’t have bad days, they have bad years.” In a mere forty-five minutes, Feury and company capture that completely.
photo by Nicole Souza
Dolores
Stephanie Feury Studio Theatre, 5636 Melrose Ave
part of the Hollywood Fringe Festival
ended on June 29, 2025
for more show info, visit Dolores
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