The Lyons at The Theatre Factory: A Juicy, Messy, and Entertaining Family Drama

Pamela Farneth plays Rita, and Weston Blakesley plays Ben. (Image by David Nackman)

By Mingsi Ma

Before I walked into The Theatre Factory for their latest production of playwright Nicky Silver’s The Lyons, out of the blue I somehow wondered whether the room would smell like disinfectant, that faint scent of weariness that reminds you of something unsettling – sickness, groaning, the blur of white coats passing by swiftly, the white noise of the hospital lobby…rather overwhelming. Still, though set mainly in a hospital room, The Lyons, directed by Brandon Farneth,doesn’t really leave me steeped in melancholy. Rather, the unexpected plot twists upon plot twists and the ridicule tucked into the exaggerated performances remind me of the juicy and messy family drama you might see people spilling tea about on Reddit at 2:00am. It’s absurdly entertaining.

The story opens with Ben, the father of the Lyons, played by Weston Blakesley, waiting for his final days at the hospital. Tortured by cancer, he gets grumpy and curses constantly. The arrivals of the wife Rita, daughter Lisa, and son Curtis, respectively played by Pamela Farneth, Emily Urbaniak, and Matt Mlynarski, are just one layer of chaos added on top of another. The husband-wife bickering gets louder, and the family argument turns to finger-pointing and yelling. People in the hospital don’t come out to kick them out – I assume they are quietly eavesdropping so that they can get the full gossip. I bet the Lyons haven’t spent enough money on therapy.

I am impressed by Pamela Farneth’s Rita. Her portrayal of Rita has a sharp presence on stage and catches the audience’s attention immediately as she flips through a home décor magazine and talks about a living room renovation plan to her ill husband before deliberately adding, “I realize you won’t actually be there to enjoy it, but I’d like to think you’d like it.” The way she walks and talks radiates a cutting energy.

Daniel Schrauder, who plays Brian, the real estate agent, surprises me with how convincing his performance is. Just by standing next to the kitchen counter, monotonously reciting the apartment measurements and pricing in a polo shirt with a forced sense of enthusiasm, I’m convinced that this guy has a professional corporate-style headshot with a savvy smile listed on Zillow or Apartment.com.

The Lyons visiting the father at the hospital. From left to right: Matt Mlynarski as Curtis, Weston Blakesley as Ben, and Emily Urbaniak as Lisa. (Image by David Nackman)

Under Farneth’s direction, almost every one of the Lyons has something that feels “off”. Pamela Farneth’s Rita shows up with a green suit and a pair of silver high heels. Sitting by her dying, hospitalized husband, Rita’s loud diamond necklace, the matching bracelet, and the shiny shoe clips seem untimely and make her sharp tongue even sharper. Blakesley lies in a hospital bed playing Ben. Despite Ben being at the end of his life, Blakesley’s portrayal is rather energetic and sounds full-throated to the point that I can imagine him jumping out of the bed and getting ready to punch someone. Urbaniak’s Lisa reacts to her father’s cancer with a momentary shock that feels almost performative, then quickly turns her attention to something else. Curtis’ argument with Lisa is dramatic and gets heated so quickly without much foreshadowing.

Some of the performances are not without rough edges. Considered on their own, several characters’ emotional cadence contains moments of uneven shaping; yet in combination, those very imperfections together alchemize into something unexpectedly fascinating in style. The Lyons is a play about a dysfunctional family that no one knows how to properly love one another. The odd feeling coming from these counterintuitive moments vividly reveals the lasting trauma, and the toxicity lingers throughout the family: the bullheaded father, the caustic mother, and the daughter and son who are trapped in a poor communication pattern. All the Lyons family members shaped by Nicky Silver have remarkable depth of character with their flaws. The family members also each perform in their own way to cover their vulnerability, discomfort, and trauma. As the play unfolds, you gradually come to understand how each of them became who they are and why they make the choices they do.

The Lyons is a comedy with a sad core, yet its staging refrains from allowing the melancholy to overwhelm the stage. The Theatre Factory’s production carries an exaggeration and a sense of detachment, as if they are recounting the gossip for the audience, like the theatrical equivalent of leaning in, raising eyebrows, and saying, “Wait till you hear this.”

TICKETS AND DETAILS:

The Lyons is on stage at The Theatre Factory from Friday, February 27, to Saturday, March 7, 2026. Learn more at thetheatrefactory.org