"Auld Lang Syne"

June 26, 2012 — It's 10:30 p.m., I'm relaxing with a cup of tea after returning from an evening at New Hampshire's Peterborough Players and I'm going to write this review while my impressions are fresh. The play was "Auld Lang Syne" by Jack Neary and it's having its world premiere at Peterborough. Just two actors had to carry the hour and forty-minute play, always a challenge to the most talented performers. But these two were more than up to the task. Gordon Clapp, an Emmy award-winning TV actor who has also appeared in Hollywood movies and other live theater productions, portrayed gangster Joe LaCedra. The wonderful Kathy Manfre, a regular at the Players for nine years, appeared as widow Mary Antonelli.

Mary has called Joe to her home on New Year's Eve because she has heard he's uniquely qualified to perform a particular service for her, but she may have been misinformed. Or was she? At first she's evasive about just what she expects from Joe. When the tough-talking and impatient Joe, after much prodding, finally learns what she wants from him, he's appalled and insists he wants nothing to do with her plan.

The acting is superb, the dialog is at turns funny and infuriating. Four-letter words are flung around with abandon, so this is strictly an adult play. The play is both funny and poignant, with lessons in the importance of family connections. The two actors received well-deserved and prolonged applause and cheers at the curtain call..