A GEM OF A PRODUCTION FOR THERESA
REBECK’S DAZZLING SUNDAY ON THE ROCKS

Solid.

Diamond Solid.

Strength and luster.

That is what’s most striking about Sunday on the Rocks by playwright Theresa Rebeck, now at The Actor’s Company Theatre.  

The finest razzle-dazzle that money can buy? Not in this production; there is just good old-fashioned all-American diamond solid luster, and plenty of it.  

The play itself radiates with the craftsmanship of an astute professional, which Rebeck is. Her writing has earned her an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America, and she was the creator of the unjustly short-lived NBC series Smash about the mounting of a Broadway musical. Rebeck was also a finalist for the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Sunday on the Rocks (as wonderful as her play is, personally, I’d rather hang out in a bar commiserating with her fellow finalist Edward Albee for The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? Admittedly, it was a tough year: Richard Greenberg’s Take Me Out was also in the running. Nilo Cruz received the award for Anna in the Tropics.)

With Sunday on the Rocks, Rebeck has composed a four-character play that may strike women in the audience as a combined Rorschach and Implicit-Association test, where they may recognize aspects of themselves in the characters or find the drama uncannily relatable to their own lives.

Meanwhile, men should just pay close attention and take notes. Copious notes.

Set in Boston, where the average monthly rent for a small apartment hovers between $3,000 to $3,500, four young working-class women have pooled their resources to share a house.

The play opens with Elly (Mariel Molino) sitting on the veranda, drinking scotch at 8:30 on a Sunday morning. Starting their own day, her roommates—the reticent professional Gayle (Lizinke Krüger) and the party girl of the quartet, Jen (Kelsey Longwill)—are surprised to find Elly behaving so unlike herself.

When told the reason, however, they join her.

Elly is struggling with a decision that only a woman ever faces, and that only a woman has the right to decide.

One of the roomies is not present, and her arrival is regarded with some trepidation. This is Jessica (Dominique Druckman), whose religious beliefs tend to come with a side dish of “righteousness.”

Yes, you may be thinking, “been there, seen that.” But not like this—not for a play as astutely crafted as this one.

Or perhaps you’re dismissing it already as just another “chick-play.” From a lesser writer, you might expect an evening of bombastic bosom-beating, with scene-chewers tripping over soapboxes cluttering the stage.

Not this time.

There’s no anti-religious theme, no condemnation of “wokism,” no full-out man-beating. Just individuals facing their problems—and discovering they’re faced better when shared.

Rebeck has not written this play with a quill dripping in the ink of the “author’s viewpoint,” but with the honesty of unadulterated emotion. Her characters are flawed, confused, contradictory, terrified, abusive, hopeful, loving—and about seventy-nine other adjectives. In other words, Rebeck writes characters we recognize as human beings, just like us.

Watching this cast, I kept recalling the finest ballet companies I’ve seen: each movement and moment so finely structured on its own, yet serving gracefully to complement the whole.

Producers Molino, Julia Gureck, Zach Finkbeiner, and Nico Velez have excelled in demonstrating the heights that can be achieved in a “99 Seat Plan” venue (what used to be called Equity Waiver). Kate Schaaf’s set not only serves the play beautifully but also mitigates the acoustic drawbacks of the space, while Hudson Hedge’s subtly shifting lighting provides a flawless, fleeting sense of time.  

As director, Velez has succeeded in harmonizing the performances and staging of Sunday on the Rocks in service to the material. In doing so, he has realized a production that earns everyone involved not just a feather in their bonnet, but an entire plume—including stage manager Lola Darzens.

photos by Julia Gureck

Sunday on the Rocks
Falco Productions
The Actor’s Company, 916 A North Formosa Ave. in West Hollywood
2 hours 30 minutes, including intermission
Sat at 2 & 7; Sun at 1
ends on September 28, 2025
for tickets (beginning at $35), visit Event Brite or Actor’s Company

for more shows, visit Theatre in LA