review of my show
'Twilight of the Golds'
Somerset Valley Players sets into Jonathan Tolins' controversial drama.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008 11:49 AM EDT
By Stuart Duncan
The Twilight of the Golds is a comedy/drama that tries to do too much. Written in 1993, the work has had moderate success, a film that raised eyebrows and perhaps hackles more than box office fervor and a few community productions around the U.S. The latest is at Somerset Valley Playhouse, directed superbly by Amy Levine and with an excellent cast of five, it shines light on all the crevices that lurk for the playgoer.
Let’s take a look at the plot since it is all-important. We are in an Upper East Side Manhattan apartment where Suzanne Gold-Stein lives with her husband, Rob Stein. He is a geneticist and she is pregnant. We meet Suzanne’s brother, David, a set designer who has sidled to opera as his field of choice. David is gay and out, and lives with Stephen (who never appears in the play.) The plot thickens perceptibly when Suzanne allows her husband to arrange for genetic testing on her fetus. That testing indicates that the baby will be a healthy boy, but with a 90 percent chance of being homosexual.
The result of this small disclosure changes the dynamics of the family operation. Mother and father tend to think of themselves as liberals, but turn out to be decidedly old-fashioned in this regard. David, naturally enough, considers the information as challenging, especially when Suzanne and Rob start to think of an abortion.
But hold on - it’s 1993, remember, and no one had invented a test that foretold “gay or straight” at this time. Even today the results might well be hazy. Playwright Jonathan Tolins’ approach seems talky, especially since he has each of the five characters step to the audience for some intimate moments, a few laughs and bits of character stirrings. David, for example, accompanies all of his musings to the music of Wagner, especially from the Ring Cycle. We begin to think that much of this commentary might well have a place in a novel, but is not needed on stage.
Not the fault of this production, which indeed is a strong one. The set is perfect for an Upper West Side apartment. Dawn Calvert and Fred Halperin play Suzanne and her husband, Rob, with restraint as befits a couple caught in the glare of headlights both from her parents and her brother. Terrie Copeland and Scott Fishman play the parents as if they would be shocked to find out just how meddling they are. And John Saul, a newcomer to the area, plays David to perfection, his heart on a sleeve, comedy mixed brilliantly with pathos.
But Tolins has not made up his mind whether he is writing a comedy (black though it may be) or merely an argumentative medical treatise. The Wagner moments become something of an intrusion and the action sags.
The Twilight of the Golds continues at Somerset Valley Playhouse, 689 Amwell Road (Route 514), through April 13. Performances: Fri.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 3 p.m. Tickets cost $14, $12 seniors/students; (908) 369-7469.
Come SEE ME!!!! *grin*
http://svptheater.org/TT_reservations.html
Somerset Valley Players sets into Jonathan Tolins' controversial drama.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008 11:49 AM EDT
By Stuart Duncan
The Twilight of the Golds is a comedy/drama that tries to do too much. Written in 1993, the work has had moderate success, a film that raised eyebrows and perhaps hackles more than box office fervor and a few community productions around the U.S. The latest is at Somerset Valley Playhouse, directed superbly by Amy Levine and with an excellent cast of five, it shines light on all the crevices that lurk for the playgoer.
Let’s take a look at the plot since it is all-important. We are in an Upper East Side Manhattan apartment where Suzanne Gold-Stein lives with her husband, Rob Stein. He is a geneticist and she is pregnant. We meet Suzanne’s brother, David, a set designer who has sidled to opera as his field of choice. David is gay and out, and lives with Stephen (who never appears in the play.) The plot thickens perceptibly when Suzanne allows her husband to arrange for genetic testing on her fetus. That testing indicates that the baby will be a healthy boy, but with a 90 percent chance of being homosexual.
The result of this small disclosure changes the dynamics of the family operation. Mother and father tend to think of themselves as liberals, but turn out to be decidedly old-fashioned in this regard. David, naturally enough, considers the information as challenging, especially when Suzanne and Rob start to think of an abortion.
But hold on - it’s 1993, remember, and no one had invented a test that foretold “gay or straight” at this time. Even today the results might well be hazy. Playwright Jonathan Tolins’ approach seems talky, especially since he has each of the five characters step to the audience for some intimate moments, a few laughs and bits of character stirrings. David, for example, accompanies all of his musings to the music of Wagner, especially from the Ring Cycle. We begin to think that much of this commentary might well have a place in a novel, but is not needed on stage.
Not the fault of this production, which indeed is a strong one. The set is perfect for an Upper West Side apartment. Dawn Calvert and Fred Halperin play Suzanne and her husband, Rob, with restraint as befits a couple caught in the glare of headlights both from her parents and her brother. Terrie Copeland and Scott Fishman play the parents as if they would be shocked to find out just how meddling they are. And John Saul, a newcomer to the area, plays David to perfection, his heart on a sleeve, comedy mixed brilliantly with pathos.
But Tolins has not made up his mind whether he is writing a comedy (black though it may be) or merely an argumentative medical treatise. The Wagner moments become something of an intrusion and the action sags.
The Twilight of the Golds continues at Somerset Valley Playhouse, 689 Amwell Road (Route 514), through April 13. Performances: Fri.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 3 p.m. Tickets cost $14, $12 seniors/students; (908) 369-7469.
Come SEE ME!!!! *grin*
http://svptheater.org/TT_reservations.html