“The Hills of California,” a new play by Jez Butterworth and directed by Sam Mendes, is running on Broadway at The Broadhurst Theatre through December 22.
The play is set in 1955 and 1976 at the run-down Sea View Guest House near the English seaside. The boarding house/inn/bed and breakfast is run by Veronica Webb. In 1955, she and her four daughters pin the hopes of their family on the girls becoming a successful musical act - like The Andrews Sisters. Veronica stage-mothers while attempting to keep the Sea View Guest House running and make the girls famous – by any means necessary.
In 1976, Veronica is dying upstairs while the daughters gather in a combative vigil – having not seen each other regularly – or at all – in the intervening decades.
The play explores the complications involved in perception and memory surrounding traumatic events in one family’s story.
Helena Wilson plays Jill, the youngest sister, in the 1976 scenes. “The Hills of California” is Wilson’s Broadway debut - and she performed in the original production on The West End earlier this year.
