Home Is Where the Hard Is: "Independence," at the Richmond Hill Barn Theatre through February 20

Director Emmalee Moffitt's Richmond Hill Barn Theatre production of Independence may be the first work I've seen in which the pacing is a problem because it's too fast. It struck me, while watching Thursday night's performance, that a lot of tension was lost due to the lack of awkward silences during verbal spats; Moffitt doesn't allow several scenes to breathe, particularly whenever the play's matriarch and her eldest daughter argue, and so they wind up playing like ordinary family squabbles, rather than the uncomfortable, dysfunctional altercations playwright Lee Blessing intended.