Before the action begins we hear commercials from the bygone era in which Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman penned this script. They summon us to forget our modern mindset. Makers of Camel cigarettes flaunt their endorsement by physicians. Wrigley Co. reminds that chewing gum refreshes your mouth and cleans your teeth all the time and everywhere— at work and play, morning, noon and night.
With a brisk stride Penny (Mrs. Penelope Sycamore, played by Julia Gibson) enters PlayMaker’s oversized thrust stage to pull an overhead lever that we soon realize is the switch for a Rube Goldberg-styled watering can for the plants which she has to rush to position under the spout.
Why a Rube Goldberg machine? We soon surmise it’s just for the heck of it; just for the love of it. That’s true of every member of the Sycamore household. It’s why grandfather keeps an aquarium overflowing with snakes. It explains why Penny’s husband Paul builds model ships when he isn’t conjuring new firecrackers in the basement with his collaborator Mr. De Pinna, who did an ice delivery 8 years earlier and never left. Penny herself became a playwright when a typewriter was mis-delivered to their house and she sought a use for it. Graceless elder daughter Essie’s hobby is dance, though she still can’t pull off a pirouette even after many years of tutoring by Russian emigré and frequent visitor, Boris Kolenkhov. When she isn’t dancing she is making chocolates for her husband Ed to sell. Ed likes to bang out a tune on his xylophone when he isn’t printing anarchist messages that he puts into Essie’s chocolate boxes as they are delivered.
They are ALL quirky—but lovable…
Nobody knows this better than Alice, the other daughter. She is a stenographer who has fallen hard for Tony Kirby, son of the man who owns the business where she works and where Tony is her boss. (Remember- this is another time when workplace romances were just that and not sordid Me-Too chapters.)
Just thinking of the impossibility of melding her off-beat family with Tony’s straight-laced proper parents is enough to turn Alice’s walking-on-air feelings of love into a cyclone of emotional churn. Tony, however, has no such misgivings. He wants to get his girl and — spoiler alert if you are sleeping and can’t guess—- he eventually does.
More, Tony wants his family to be just like the Sycamores.
The farcical twists and turns in the story unfold to show how Tony gets his way. At the end of the romp, we all get a moral lesson on the ephemeral value of money per the title (and the Bible)— You Can’t Take It With You.
With This Production PlayMakers Rep Truly Mixes It Up
Though the program notes aver that this Pulitzer Prize-winning Depression-era script is as relevant today as when it first hit the NY stage, you too might respond with a huh? True, most of us would love to ask a Tech Bro why on earth they think they still don’t have enough. That said, this script doesn’t ring with deep resonance about our emerging fascist today. But, this shouldn’t deter you from taking in a play that won a Pulitzer, as perhaps an intriguing window to another time.
This performance goes down easily and lightly. Though there are a few especially strong performances — particularly by Douglas S. Hall as straight-laced capitalist Dad Mr. Kirby and Julia Gibson as goofball-with-an-edge Penny Sycamore— don’t come expecting to delight in the comic timing you get in a Marx Brothers movie. Not a holiday themed play per se, You Can’t Take It With You tells us to love family first, making it holiday season appropriate.
WHEN:
Nov 19 - Dec 7, 2025
WHERE:
PlayMakers Repertory Company
120 Country Club Rd.
Chapel Hill, NC 27599
TICKETS:
$20+
For more information and tickets visit the PlayMakers Repertory Company website.
Photos by HuthPhoto, courtesy of PlayMakers Repertory Company
CAST:
Reez Bailey, Dawson Boudreaux, Jim Bray*, Jeffrey Blair Cornell*, Matthew Donahue, Elizabeth Dye, Julia Gibson*, Douglas S. Hall*, Kathryn Hunter-Williams*, Delaney Jackson, Jadah Johnson, Trevor Johnson, Nate John Mark, Caroline Marques, Trevele Morgan, Adam Moskowitz, Celeste Pelletier, Gwendolyn Schwinke*, Ray Anthony Thomas*, and Mengwe Wapimewah.
CREATIVE TEAM:
Director: Nathaniel P. Claridad
Scenic Designer: Daniel Zimmerman
Sound Designer: Derek A. Graham
Fight Choreographer: Jeff A. R. Jones
Vocal Coach: Gwendolyn Schwinke
Costume Designer: Anne Kennedy
Lighting Designer: Kathy A. Perkins
Choreographer: Tracy Bersley
Dramaturg: Gregory Kable
Stage Manager: Sarah Smiley*
Assistant Stage Manager: Aspen Blake Jackson*
Click here to read more Picture This Post PlayMakers Rep stories.
About the Author: Amy Munice
Amy Munice is Editor-in-Chief and Co-Publisher of Picture This Post. She covers books, dance, film, theater, music, museums and travel. Prior to founding Picture This Post, Amy was a freelance writer and global PR specialist for decades—writing and ghostwriting thousands of articles and promotional communications on a wide range of technical and not-so-technical topics.
