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Mint Theater Company

The Lucky One – Ill Fated Siblings

05/19/2017

Author of the beloved Winnie the Pooh Books, Alan Alexander Milne also wrote verse, essays and two dozen plays. The Lucky One had little success on Broadway in 1922, but retitled Let’s All Talk About Gerald, fared better on The West End six years later. Skill in depicting societal expectations, relationships, and moral quandaries later embodied by forest creatures is here showcased with insight.

Sets Vicki R. Davis Costumes Martha Hally Lights Christian DeAngelis Sound Toby Algya Props Joshua Yocom Dialects and Dramaturgy Amy Stoller

Michael Frederic, Wynn Harmon, Robert David Grant, Mia Hutchinson-Shaw, Andrew Fallaize, Cynthia Harris

This weekend’s house party at Sir James Farringdon’s country estate consists of favored son Gerald (Robert David Grant) and his newly minted, family-loved fiancé, Pamela (Paton Ashbrook), friends Henry Wentworth, a lawyer (Michael Frederic), public school mate Thomas Todd (Andrew Fallaize) and Todd’s ever chipper girlfriend Letty Herbert (Mia Hutchinson-Shaw). Hosting the group’s endless golf before a local tournament are stolid, conservative Sir James (Wynn Harmon), his status conscious wife, Lady Farringdon (Deanne Lorette) and Sir James’s patrician aunt (Cynthia Harris): “I don’t know anything about golf, but I think doing anything in-one is marvelous!”

Gerald Farringdon, who’s a rising star at the foreign office, excels at simply everything; encouraged and celebrated throughout a charmed life. His older brother, universally referred to as “poor old Bob (Ari Brand), runs a perpetual second place. Whatever the elder one does, the younger one does a jolly sight better.”  An unhappy banker, Bob has a chip on his shoulder the size of Trafalgar Square.

Sets Vicki R. Davis Costumes Martha Hally Lights Christian DeAngelis Sound Toby Algya Props Joshua Yocom Dialects and Dramaturgy Amy Stoller

Robert David Grant and Ari Brand

“What’s the family creed? I believe in Gerald.  I believe in Gerald the Brother.  I believe in Gerald the Son.  I believe in Gerald the Nephew.  I believe in Gerald the Friend, the Lover, Gerald the Holy Marvel.” Bob

The pastoral weekend is interrupted by Bob’s frenzied appearance. Taking Gerald aside, he admits that being “helpless with figures” has allowed his partner to embezzle funds and flee. The young man is sure of prosecution and scared out of his wits. In the predictable manner of someone who’s never known difficulty, Gerald assures him that “people don’t get thrown into prison if they’re innocent.” Unfortunately, he can’t make it to town to help his brother for 4-5 days because of the golf tournament. Not to worry.

couples

Robert David Grant and Paton Ashbrook; Paton Ashbrook and Ari Brand

Bob is arrested, convicted and sentenced. Everyone seems more concerned about reputations than the incipient convict. Before he goes to prison, we learn that Pamela was his friend, “my only friend,” when introduced to, then courted by Gerald. Clearly jealous and enamored, he begs her not to marry until he’s released so that he doesn’t have to return to Gerald’s wife. She agrees to wait. Two month pass. And then…

There you have it. Except nothing’s as cut and dry as it seems. Brakes screech, people rethink, things change.

In addition to spot-on golf repartee, wonderful pieces of dialogue include Gerald’s cheery, obtuse suggestions for Bob’s productively occupying himself in prison – learning French or to stand on his head, for example, and the brothers’ eventual confrontation. The latter contains the lucky one’s unexpected and illuminating rebuttal to Bob’s grievances.

Most secondary characters, though credible, act as wallpaper. Thomas Todd and Letty Herbert are sheer, drawing room clichés. (Nonetheless well manifest by Andrew Fallaize and Mia-Hutchinson-Shaw.) Only the family Aunt, here a thoughtful, patrician Cynthia Harris, has her own distinct character. Still the piece holds one’s attention, not the least because of actor Robert David Grant’s vivid performance.

Sets Vicki R. Davis Costumes Martha Hally Lights Christian DeAngelis Sound Toby Algya Props Joshua Yocom Dialects and Dramaturgy Amy Stoller

Robert David Grant and Cynthia Harris

As Gerald, Robert David Grant conjures unflagging ego and blithe insensitivity. He vibrates with energy and good will. When the character’s internal ballast is shaken, difficulty in processing is evident. Testimony to suffering then arrives with incredulous strain but no real explosion. A believable portrait.

Ari Brand seems almost as nervous as Bob, an unfortunate observation. The actor plays his character too one-note and doesn’t come into his own until a final scene. With glimpses of skill, one hopes this will iron itself out.

Paton Ashbrook lacks grounding, as if she hasn’t decided what Pamela is thinking and feeling. Both the character’s lack of sureness about Gerald and decisions that subsequently arise from it read as surface display. Only when Ashbrook is dealing with friends and family does she come across as whole.

Sets Vicki R. Davis Costumes Martha Hally Lights Christian DeAngelis Sound Toby Algya Props Joshua Yocom Dialects and Dramaturgy Amy Stoller

Pamela Ashbrook and Robert David Grant

Director Jesse Marchese uses her stage with aesthetic and dramatic skill. Pacing is good. It would have served the piece to find some personal definition in minor characters.

Vicki R. Davis offers a minimal, yet evocative set build around a fabulous, double stairway. Young photos of the boys – perhaps of Milne and his brother – are a redolent touch.

Martha Hally’s pale Costumes are flattering and accurate to class and period. Love the golf clothes. Wigs and Hair by Robert-Charles Vallance are enviably attractive.

 Also featuring an excellent Peggy J. Scott as Mason, the boys’ old nurse.

Photos by Richard Termine
Opening: Robert David Grant and Ari Brand

The Lucky One by A. A. Milne
Directed by Jesse Marchese
Mint Theater Company
Beckett Theatre
410 West 42nd Street
Through June 25, 2017

A Day by the Sea – Is There Life After Forty?

08/26/2016

In a note on 1953’s A Day by the Sea, its playwright N.C. Hunter suggests that 40 signifies “…a foot in two worlds, half way between youth and age, promise and achievement…(with time) to succeed, to reshape one’s life…” The terms “urgency,” “crisis,” and “last chance” are employed. Think of films during that period when a woman that age was matronly, a man irrevocably settled into his future. Now reflect on contemporary timelines.

Pointedly featuring five generations of characters each of which views life from its own perspective, the piece gives us a glimpse into an upper class (civil servant) strata of British society, its morality, judgments, and expectations.

Directing Austin Pendleton Sets Charles Morgan Costumes Martha Hally Lights Xavier Pierce Original Music & Sound Jane Shaw Props Joshua Yocom

Front: Jill Tanner and George Morfogen; Back: Julian Elfer and Philip Goodwin

Julian Anson (Julian Elfer), a mid level, type A, foreign service diplomat, inherited the family manse from his father, but spends practically no time there. His idealistic, self-glorified responsibility is improving international relations, eschewing all leisure and personal relationships. He eats, sleeps and breathes his job finding inadequacies everywhere, attending profoundly larger issues than the construction of a new pig sty.

The estate is run by Julian’s stolid mother, Laura Anson (Jill Tanner), who can’t really talk to her son. She’s as oblivious to world affairs as he is to the vicissitudes of running his childhood home. Puritanical, maternal concern permeates every conversation. When Julian waxes on about a brighter future, her reaction is “You’re getting quite eloquent, dear. We must find you a soapbox in Hyde Park.”

Directing Austin Pendleton Sets Charles Morgan Costumes Martha Hally Lights Xavier Pierce Original Music & Sound Jane Shaw Props Joshua Yocom

Katie Firth and Jill Tanner

Additional occupants are Laura’s elder, infirm brother David (George Morfogen) and his paid attendant, Doctor Farley (Philip Goodwin). David clearly lived a robust life now drifting in and out of exotic memories. The doctor is an often angry, philosophizing drunk, thought to be cheaper than someone more qualified. Having lost wife and son, at 56, he’s retreated to this position with bitterness.

Summer visitors include Frances Farrar (Katie Firth) and her two children. Orphaned quite young, Frances was raised on the estate side by side with Julian, but hasn’t been back in 20 years. Her first, considerably older husband died a soldier. The second, a much younger and more fragile man, attempted suicide when she left him causing scandal. Life has happened taking its tolls. Nanny Maddie (Polly McKie), a lonely spinster at 35, affectionately manages Frances’s two children.

Directing Austin Pendleton Sets Charles Morgan Costumes Martha Hally Lights Xavier Pierce Original Music & Sound Jane Shaw Props Joshua Yocom

Polly McKie and Philip Goodwin

Long story short: Priggish Julian is forced to reconsider his life when the earth shifts beneath him. Frances receives some discomfiting resolution. Doctor Farley is presented with an option. Laura kind of gets her son back.

Hunter’s work has been compared to that of Chekhov. His characters are less earthy and fiery, but familial context, reflection of an era, and reexamination of one’s identity conforms. The play feels slow. Others despite clocking in at almost three hours do not. It’s impossible to tell how much of this is attributable to the script and how much to the production, which is not, in my opinion, up to high Mint Theater standards.

Directing Austin Pendleton Sets Charles Morgan Costumes Martha Hally Lights Xavier Pierce Original Music & Sound Jane Shaw Props Joshua Yocom

Julian Elfer and Katie Firth

George Morfogen’s David is pitch perfect. Every time the character speaks, reality infuses the scenario. The actor moves and watches like the old man. The same can be said for Polly McKie’s Maddie (Miss Mathieson) with whom we feel instant, then increasing empathy. (Her Scottish accent is sublime)

As played by Katie Firth, the underwritten Frances is a bit slow on the uptake even for her personality, but the actress has made plausible decisions which hold. Both Julian Elfer (Julian) and Jill Tanner (Laura) have long, effective segments one wishes were more dependable. Philip Goodwin chews scenery.

Directing Austin Pendleton Sets Charles Morgan Costumes Martha Hally Lights Xavier Pierce Original Music & Sound Jane Shaw Props Joshua Yocom

Julian Elfer and Jill Tanner

Austen Pendleton’s Direction is radically uneven. There are wonderful small gestures – Julian formally sits without unbuttoning his suit jacket while the doctor buttons his when Frances approaches. In crisis, Julian sits dejectedly on a swing; his mother comes up behind, holding both ropes as she consoles him. A dramatic scene between Julian and Frances shows both actors to their best, nuanced advantage as does a poignant one between Doctor Farley and Maddie. On the other hand, we have children in the space doing nothing (like sticks); there are actors who seem to disappear when not speaking, intermittent lack of focus during dialogue, and cast members so theatrically flamboyant embodiment is left in the dust of bravado.

Minimal, painterly Set by Charles Morgan is pleasantly evocative. Love the tree swing and use of overhead paintings. Martha Hally’s Costumes effortlessly put us firmly in time, place, and class.

Amy Stoller’s Dialect Coaching achieves a mishmash. Some accents are clearly faux, some inconsistent, some non-existent.

Also featuring: Curzon Dobell as William Gregson, estate accountant, a splendid Sean  Gormley gracefully inhabiting the role of diplomat Humphrey Caldwell, with the immensely self conscious Kylie McVey and Athan Sporek as Frances’s two children.

Photos by Richard Termine
Opening: Katie Firth & Julian Elfer

Mint Theater Company presents
A Day by the Sea by N.C. Hunter
Directed by Austin Pendleton
The Beckett Theater
410 West 42nd Street
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