What is is about returning to the family home that makes one revert to  one's childhood family dynamic?
 That is the situation in New West Theatre’s new production of The Attic, the Pearls and Three Fine Girls where three sisters, eldest Jojo (played by Erica Hunt), middle sister Jayne (played by Lesley Galbecka) who return to their family home  where youngest sister Jelly (Meghan Porteous) has been taking care of their dying dad.

Though Jojo and Jayne are stars in their professional fields as a professor and high powered banker respectively, it doesn’t take long for them to revert to their childhoods, fighting with each other, saying spiteful things to each other, dredging up the baggage from the past while trying to set up one last big party in memory of their father.
 Erica Hunt is at her loud, brash best who is also kind of scary when she brandishes a huge cake knife.

Lesley Galbecka makes a fine hyper-competitive, drunk middle sister with a secret. The two of them mercilessly bully aspiring artist Jelly, when they notice her at all, but also care for their younger sister like surrogate parents. Porteous, who was just as hyperactive and appealingly childlike in Munsch Time, is a marvel, being able to switch from hyperactive to heart-wrenching in the span of a sentence.The girls not only deliver their lines impeccably and play off each other perfectly they also bond and scrape on stage like actual sisters. And while the fight scenes are  particularly fierce, they also include a fair amount of humour.

They also do double duty as stage hands during set changes which fit right into the play. Porteous has to move the entire set transforming the attic into the kitchen to illustrate how she’s doing all the work for the party. The set pieces are mobile and have multiple uses too. The windows double as a kitchen table and the trunks from the attic are used as a couch.
Another particularly nasty fight  between Jayne and  Jojo continues as they move the set back while glaring at each other all the way.
The Attic, the Pears and Three Fine Girls is touching, entertaining, bustling with activity and hilarious. It appeals to anybody who has fought with a family member, forgiven them and bonded with them.
the Attic, the Pearls and Three Fine Girls runs at the Sterndale Bennett Theatre, March 10-13 at 8 p.m. each night with a 1 p.m. matinee, on March 13 as well.

Tickets are $12 earlybird, $15 for the Matinee and $18 nights for adults and  $12 for the earlybird and matinee for seniors and students and $16  for the nights.