Jez Butterworth ’s ambitious, captivating and richly rewarding domestic drama “The Hills of California” straddles dual worlds of dreams and reality as it shuttles between two pivotal time periods in the lives of the Webb women. Though this densely-packed, 17-actor play is more family-focused in its themes than Butterworth’s previous, stunning epics “ Jerusalem ” and “ The Ferryman ,” “The Hills of California” — also directed by Sam Mendes , who staged the Tony-winning “Ferryman” — strikes societal notes, too, as it details women with limited choices and plenty of obstacles in an ever-changing world. In the mid-1950s, Veronica Webb ( Laura Donnelly ), a disciplined but caring mother, drills her young teen and tween daughters to become a song-and-dance quartet, evoking the style and songlist of the ‘40s girl group The Andrew Sisters.
But 20 years later, the four-part harmonies have long turned flat as the emotionally damaged sisters gather at their childhood home to stand vigil for their dying mother. Seesawing between the two time periods, the play opens in the late ‘70s during a debilitating heat wave, with unmarried Jill (Helena Wilson) — who has remained in the home with their declining mum — awaiting the arrival of two of her siblings, Ruby (Ophelia Lovibond) and Gloria (Leanne Best). A fourth sister, Joan (also played by Donnelly, transformative), left home for a recording career in the U.
S. and has been estranged from the family for th.