Jon Robin Baitz’s Satire Shines in Vivid Vision of Family & Country

by Barry David Horwitz

Just beyond Palm Springs, a freeway sign points to “Other Desert Cities”—where meth labs, addicts, and homeless folk live just up the highway. But in Palm Springs in 2004, old Republicans in pants suits and tennis shorts are living in an alternate reality.

Director Dylan Russell does a magnificent job of depicting their privileged lives. Add the  beautiful desert home set design and five superb actors and Masquers Playhouse has set the gold standard for Best Play of the Year!

In their pastel togs or dressed up for the country club, the smug Wyeth family are hilarious. Left over from the Reagan era, they reek of arrogance, wealth, and power—like the bunch taking over in D.C. right now.

We watch in horror as a lifetime of GOP privilege and power warps and bends the Wyeths’ grown children. The kids lead tortured lives, embarrassed by their brittle, secretive parents. The older Wyeths, now retired, are pickled in Palm Springs—along with others of their kind.

And their kids walk on  eggshells, with their WASP-y names: fragile Brooke Wyeth (intriguing Michele Morgen) is threatening to expose the family’s darkest secrets in her new book, soon to be published serially in the New Yorker. She’s  a writer with a lifelong ax to grind.

Her brother Trip Wyeth (magnetic Tyler Aguallo) is trying to make a life as a Hollywood TV producer. Aguallo makes Trip the family peacemaker. He also plays the prophet with wit and charm. His Trip is delightfully secretive, sensitive, and subtle.

Trip tries to explain the outside world to his parents, but they shut him down. Morgen and Aguallo make striking siblings—in search of the truth. Their monologues dig deep, linking the family dynamic to America’s wars.

The dialogue crackles as manipulative mom Polly Wyeth (brilliant Jen Halsing) commands the family with her rigid rules.  She claims, “I know who I am,” revealing her limitations. In a withering glance, Halsing wittily mingles condescending and admirable qualities in Polly. As she moves gracefully around the perfectly designed mid-century modern house with glass doors and marble floors, opening into the far desert, she keeps the family under pressure. She enforces her narrow right-wing confidence and worries over their social standing.  She still belongs to the Church of Reagan.

Polly’s antagonistic sister-in-law Silda (witty, funny Alison Lustbader) comments: “All those wars make Americans feel warm and fuzzy.” Silda, a long-term alcoholic, plays a prophet of the left in this conservative hell. Lustbader gets big laughs when she confronts her sister about their shallow lives and superior attitudes.

Polly’s affable, accommodating husband Lyman Wyeth (stalwart Jim Rupp), dressed for tennis, epitomizes smug, self-satisfied wealth. As the Lie-Man, Rupp delightfully embodies friendly fascism. He and his kind live off the misery of others—constantly justifying U.S. war adventures from Vietnam to Iraq.

To understand how we got to where we are today, “Other Desert Cities” points out the fascinating journey. Masquers’ brilliant production, complete with superb acting and provocative ideas, is a Top Pick. Do not miss this show.

 

“Other Desert Cities” by Jon Robin Baitz, directed by Dylan Russell, set & props design by Suzanne Daniel, at Masquers Playhouse, Point Richmond, California. Info: masquers.org – to May 18, 2025.

Cast: Jen Halsing, Jim Rupp, Michele Morgen, Tyler Aguallo, and Alison Lustbader.

Banner photo: Jen Halsing, Jim Rupp, Michele Morgen, & Alison Lustbader. Photos: Mark Decker