The clash of different generations’ priorities has been the stuff of drama for millennia, but is especially true today in modern Western society with its value of individuality and personal freedom over traditional family. This play is an entertaining take on the theme as four Italian American seniors struggle to accept that their remaining grandson has his own dreams that apparently don’t include them.

Nicky (Steven Gauthier), a up and coming Italian-American marketing executive in Hoboken, New Jersey, comes to announce to his grandparents that he is taking a promotion and relocating to Seattle, Washington. The seniors, who deeply value family ties, cannot bear to have the last of the younger generation leave and try to manipulate him into staying. When Nicky realizes what they are doing and angrily confronts them, he suffers a panic attack that finds him convalescing in his grandparents’ house. There, he gains a new understanding of his seemingly overbearing and boorish elders’ values and insecurities even as they come to accept his need to live his own life.

The plot of modern kids having to deal with their pushy traditionalist parents about their own lives is a well worn plot of classic films like Crossing Delancy, but this play is special for the humanity that transcends the stereotypes. Granted, the old stereotypes like the doting grandmother and their collectively stubborn cultural obtuseness are in full force, but they are countered with a real emotional intelligence and self-respect. For instance, as funny as the transparent matchmaking scheme is, Nicky does not hesitate to stand up to his own relatives about this interference with a refreshing ferocity.

That said, those elders get their own chance to explain their feelings even as they struggle to accept that their children simply don’t share their value in familial togetherness. Dave Perkins particularly stands out when he, as Frank, tells the story how of his impoverished father sent him to America not out of rejection, but as the only chance for a better life, to explain why he desperately does not want to do the same to his last grandchild now. That kind of perspective allows for a certain emotional understanding that enables a satisfactory conclusion that allows for an honourable compromise with everyone’s love intact.

To make this family comedy with such emotional equilibrium work, the players are up to the task. For instance, Steven Gauthier is an appealing lead with just the right tone of consideration and snarkiness that can naturally develop when you are surrounded by such grandrelatives whom you love even as they drive you up the wall. Fern Tepperman and Elizabeth Williams as Aida and Emma manage to inject some endearing love into their stereotypical roles as the blindly pushy grandmothers who cannot understand at first why their efforts to keep their last grandchild around is backfiring so disastrously.

Meanwhile, Gord Hardcastle has the most gratifyingly nuanced role as Nunzio, who carries a heartbreaking prognosis from his doctor but is wise enough to allow it to help him understand his grandson’s need for his own life, even as his own is ending. Finally, Dominique Kamras stands out as Caitlin, a seemingly lovely woman who is a willing conspirator who has her own difficulty understanding Nicky’s family relations until she finally finds a maturity she never expected.

As for the stagecraft, the stage is set beautifully as the kind of hand-built home, lovingly promised from a builder husband to his loving wife, that would be hard to leave for any reason. At the same time, the players are still able to make it almost a prison for Nicky as the conflict between his ambitions and his familial ties reaches a boiling point. In contrast, the simple scenes in the left-hand corner just outside the front door make for some of the most memorable acting of the play with no distractions to dilute the palpable emotion of the performance.

Family comedic ethnic dramas like this can descend into tired cliches and stereotypes. Thankfully, this play proves it is much more than that with intelligent writing and thoughtful acting that understands the real worth of family and the need to let go.