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Your Connection To The Arts In San Diego
Funding for "Pat Launer, Center Stage", is provided by the Elaine Lipinsky Family Foundation.
You can’t hide from your past. But you can’t hide behind it, either. In two Pulitzer Prize-winning dramas, the past is a millstone, a burden too heavy for a woman to bear; and these stubborn, strong-willed women refuse to leave it by the roadside and move on.
In Neil Simon’s 1991 “Lost in Yonkers,” there’s mean Grandma Kurner, who’s had a lousy life. She grew up in Germany, where she was beaten and crippled at a young age. She suffered a great deal of loss, burying a husband and two of her six children. In self-defense, she’s turned to steel, and her icy demeanor has crippled each of her remaining children, in varying and disturbing ways.
In “The Piano Lesson,” part of August Wilson’s ten-play, decade by decade chronicle of the lives of African Americans in the 20th century, Berniece is haunted by her roots and rooted in place. Her brother, a sharecropper from the South, has arrived on her Pittsburgh doorstep, aiming to convince her to sell the family’s ancestral piano, so he can buy the Mississippi land where their forebears were slaves. Berniece can’t even touch the piano, but she can’t let it go, either.
It’s 1936, her husband is dead, her little girl is growing up, a man wants to marry her. But Berniece can’t tear herself away from the pain of her past, which is clearly depicted in the intricately carved instrument. What ensues is some serious soul-searching, in this deep, rich, powerful piece of theater, rife with humor and music, colorful characters, lyrical language and profound insights.
Under the spectacular direction of Delicia Turner Sonnenberg, the Cygnet Theatre production is flawless. The cast is superb, each actor creating a full-bodied, raw, multi-faceted human. The set, lighting and sound are outstanding. This is a stunning, gut-wrenching, heart-rending theatrical experience that you dare not miss.
“Lost in Yonkers” has plenty of characters, too: a petty gangster, a childlike woman, a hapless father, a breathless aunt. And two wisecracking kids, who are traumatized by having to spend ten months living with their nasty, crusty grandma, while their father seeks wartime work, so he can pay back the debts for hospital bills incurred while his wife was dying.
The Kurner family is a highly dysfunctional lot, and Neil Simon gives them plenty of laugh-lines. Most fall solidly in the Old Globe production, but the New York accents come and go, and not everyone has the requisite crackling, rat-a-tat, sarcastic New York sensibility. But there are many pleasures to be had in this first full production in the Globe’s dazzling new Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre.
Past and future, precedent and potential… in these plays and on San Diego stages.
“Lost in Yonkers” runs through February 28 in the Old Globe’s new White Theatre in Balboa Park.
“The Piano Lesson” continues through February 28 at Cygnet Theatre in Old Town.
© 2010 Pat Launer
Shhhhh. Be very careful and quiet. There are ghosts prowling around The Old Globe. Prowling and singing. And scaring the bejeezus out of a young boy… in “Whisper House.”
It’s 1942. Christopher’s pilot father was recently shot down by the Japanese. That catapulted his mother into a nervous breakdown. So the young boy is sent away to his aunt, a dour spinster who manages a windswept New England lighthouse. She has no experience with children. She barely talks to him. But the ghosts talk a lot, feeding on Christopher’s fears, encouraging him to think scary thoughts, do unsavory things. They’ve been hanging around since Halloween eve in 1912, when their party boat was capsized and everyone went down. Now they want retribution; they want other souls to join them. They want to get back into the game. Still dressed in their evening clothes, top hats and all, they taunt poor Christopher, who’s having enough trouble with his taciturn aunt, and the Japanese handyman who works for her. Is he a spy? Should Christopher turn him in? What’s the right thing to do in this situation? With no guidance except from the ghosts, Christopher is at a crossroads in his young life.
The aim of this world premiere ghost story, says its creator, the Tony and Grammy-winning Duncan Sheik, is to view the war through a young boy’s eyes. How does a lonely, inquisitive 11 year-old sort out what’s going on, with U-boats lurking in the water, bombers flying overhead, a dead father, a mother he may never see again and someone Japanese skulking around in the next room? And how does he conquer his escalating fears?
Expectations were high for Sheik’s next project, after “Spring Awakening,” his groundbreaking, knockout show that in 2007, won eight Tony Awards including Best Musical. He’s on something of the same turf – coming-of-age, taking chances. But this isn’t going to be a blockbuster. It’s a quiet show, as its name suggests. It’s also quirky and unpredictable. The music is dark and minor key, mournful, ethereal, menacing at times. The ten songs are performed by two spectral singers, backed by an equally otherworldly seven-piece band. The set is a strikingly evocative staircase that spirals up three levels. Effective projections bring us the roiling water, and floating phantoms.
The cast is excellent, though some of the secondary characters seem unnecessary. Stage and screen veteran Mare Winningham is perfect as the barely communicative aunt. And 15 year-old A.J. Foggiano, who joined the cast just five days before opening, is impressive as a shell-shocked kid who’s over his head and going under.
This show may not make it to the Tonys. But you should jump at the chance to catch an intriguing and eccentric new piece of theater, before it wafts away.
“Whisper House” runs through February 21 at The Old Globe in Balboa Park.
© 2010 Pat Launer
For an archive of all of Pat's reviews, going back to 1990, use the 'search' function at www.PatteProductions.com.
