"Apple Cove" Starring Allison Mack Review

Posted on July 06, 2023 by Chris Brockow

My wife and I were recently given the opportunity to attend the play, "Apple Cove" at the Women's Project Theatre in New York City.

The theater was quaint and cozy, it only sits about 160 people. The great aspect of this is that every seat is a good seat.

The play stars Allison Mack, Paul Carlin, Erin Gann, Dion Mucciacito and Kathy Searle. It is set in a gated community somewhere in middle class America. Erin Gann plays Alan King and Allison Mack plays Edie King, a newlywed couple who move into this community right next door to Edie's father and stepmother. The stepmother just happens to be an old schoolmate of Edie's.

The basic premise of the play is the struggles of this newlywed couple, not only in dealing with the close knit community and overbearing father, but also in Edie's quest for individuality and trying to find out who she is and what she wants instead of being told by her father what he wants for her.

Edie starts to question the rules and regulations when she plants a garden and beautiful roses start popping up. The roses are not on the approved list of flowers allowed in this community. Edie wants to keep them and Alan says they must be destroyed so they can follow the rules. Edie tries to get Alan to think for himself, but he gives in to her father's wishes to come work for him, much to her dismay.

When Edie tries to remove the rose from the trash can and cuts herself, she lets out a scream that the whole neighborhood hears. That brings in the Apple Cove security guard, Duke, a very muscular and attractive young man. Edie is offended at first that he can just let himself into her home, but then starts to become attracted to him and finds different reasons for him to come back to her house. The play ends with Edie and Duke making love on the kitchen table and her husband, father and stepmother walk in. The father tries to tell Edie that she must stop this nonsense and go back to being the good little wife that she's supposed to be. Edie stands up for herself and finally does what she wants to do.

The performances were very well done by all of the characters. If anyone flubbed a line, you couldn't tell. Allison Mack showed her acting ability very well. Having seen her in the character of Chloe on "Smallville" and then seeing her in this play was evidence of that ability. We were not even tempted to try to compare Edie with Chloe. She played them both so differently and so convincingly. We had never been to an off Broadway play before and were very impressed with the professionalism.

If we were to rate this play, we would give it a 3 1/2 - 4 out of 5 stars.