The Addams Family Play Analysis

I saw The Stockton Civic Theatre’s production of The Addams Family on it’s closing night of September 24th. The show was directed by Dennis Beasley. The Addams Family is a play based on the classical television show of the same name. This story focuses around the Addams’ daughter, Wednesday, and her hopeless attraction to a “normal” boy. When she brings him home to meet her parents, hijinks ensue.

The major action of the play was Wednesday having to hide her boyfriend from the rest of her family, her father having to hide the fact that Wednesday is engaged from his wife, and the actual introduction of both families. The play gives a strong message of the importance of family. It shows how even though both families are different, they're somewhat similar. It also shows how even though everyone has their own strange personality and goals, they all work together because they love

Of course, the main Addams’ family characters had the same outfit as their television counterpart, so that wasn’t surprising, but it was satisfying. The Addams’ family ghost were dressed in customers from their respective time period and the difference between each outfit added to the show. The make-up on Morticia, Wednesday, Pugsley and Fester was done incredibly well, along with the make-up for the ghosts. The only character who had really poor make-up was Lurch. Their goal was to make him look like Frankenstein as the original show did, but the make-up they used was too dark and instead of contouring his face, they made it look like it had dirt stains.

I honestly thought the technical aspects did add to the message of the play as the Addams characters dressed very similar to kind of give the idea of a family, and slight costume tweaks towards the end show a meshing of the two families. The ghosts also send a strong message of family because they are the Addam’s ancestors, so that obviously shows that they have a very strong connection to the family