SACRED TIME

This multivoiced production relates several decades of a family's ups and downs. The story focuses on four family members, yet the four parts are awkwardly assigned to only three narrators. The result is a long stretch of the least modulated of the voices. Although Mercedes Ruehl's performance meshes poetically with the introspective, battered spirits of the characters, the synergy of reader and text is overshadowed by her overall flatness of tone. In contrast, the shorter sections, read by Bobby Cannavale and Annabella Sciorra, are lively and richly expressive. Cannavale, especially, is easy to listen to, even through his character's most difficult circumstances. This audio, like the family it depicts, is flawed but has moments of grace. D.J. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine [Published: FEB/ MAR 06]