"The Importance of Being Earnest"

June 30, 2012 - Oscar Wilde's play about deception, mistaken identities and merry mixups rivals the Shakespeare comedies. I had booked a motel and made the three-hour drive to Williamstown, Massachusetts to see "The Importance of Being Earnest" at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. The play has been on my must-see list for years, but has never before been staged within a day's travel. When I heard it was playing in Williamstown, I thought this is it, I've got to see it.

The Williamstown Theatre Festival on the Williams College campus is a large, very comfortable theatre with excellent viewing from all seats. Having made my reservation on short notice, I ended up farther back from the stage than I'm accustomed to. I could see all right, but I was out of my best hearing range and missed a line of dialog now and then. That's unfortunate, because you don't want to miss any of Wilde's brilliant dialog.

In the play, mobsters from America who have made their fortunes through activities of questionable legality have relocated to London where they have found a home in British upper society, far out of the reach of American authorities. I won't go into all the plot details here, but suffice it to say the two male leads, in an effort to please their lady-loves, concoct fictitious brothers, false names, and other deceptions. When they get tangled in the web of their own making, the results are hilarious.

Multiple Emmy award-winning actress Tyne Daly was at the top of her game as family matriarch Lady Bracknell. Other key roles were masterfully performed by Louis Cancelmi, Glenn Fitzgerald, Amy Spanger, Helen Cespedes, Marylouise Burke and Henry Stram, along with a competent supporting cast.

The sets were beautiful and elegant, Overall, the play was a memorable theatre experience.

After the play, I had supper at Hobson's Choice, my favorite Williamstown restaurant. I spent the next two hours strolling around the charming college town with its old stone buildings, some standing since Williams College was founded in 1793. It's very warm this evening, but comfortable after the intense heat of the day. Tomorrow I'm driving down the road to Pittsfield for the Berkshire Charity Auto Show. I hope this great weather holds another day, although I wouldn't complain if it cooled off by about 10 degrees.

"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..

"The Complete History of America (Abridged)"

June 21, 2012 — I was looking forward to the drive north in the air-conditioned car on the second day of temperatures flirting with 100 degrees. But if I had any hope I'd find relief in New Hampshire's lakes region, that hope was quickly dashed. Stepping out of the car by the boardwalk at Meredith Bay, I was smacked by a wall of hot air that was stifling. Still, not to be denied a stroll around one of my favorite New Hampshire spots, I walked through Hesky Park to the Inn at Bay Point, across the highway to Mill Falls for a pass through the many gift and crafts shops, back to the boardwalk and a stroll in the opposite direction, admiring the expensive boats docked along the way, past the outdoor diners at the Town Docks, ending up at Church Landing, a luxury resort with a beautiful view of the lake.

By the time I got back to the car, even though it had been a slow walk, I was dripping with sweat. I drove up the hill to Hart's Turkey Farm for supper and a cooling off period. After supper I made the ten-minute drive over to Weirs Beach where I had a reservation at the Winnipesaukee Players. I had some time to kill, so braving the heat once again I took a stroll along the famous Weirs Beach boardwalk to the home port of the M.V. Mount Washington, the huge party boat that plies the lake from May through  October. I had a brief conversation with one of the boat's security officers who told me it was just as hot out in the middle of New Hampshire's largest lake as it was everywhere else.

Back at the Winnipesaukee Players, I was finally comfortably seated in the air-conditioned theater to enjoy "The Complete History of America (Abridged)." Played on a stunningly cluttered stage that looked like an attic where someone had been storing their discarded junk for several centuries, the play is a slapstick view of American history from Amerigo Vespucci to the present in 90 minutes. Puns, sight gags, corny jokes, some inspired, some silly, some bordering on tasteless, are delivered by three male actors, Shabazz Green, Alex M. Jacobs and Kevin Killavey. I recommend the play. In such an unrelenting barrage of gags, a few are bound to fall flat, but most produced genuine belly laughs. Overall, it was a very enjoyable evening, and a hilarious start to my 2012 summer theater season.

"Anna Christie"

June 7, 2012 — Northern New England Repertory Theatre Company presented Eugene O'Neill's Pulitzer Prize-winning "Anna Christie" at the Sawyer Center Theater at Colby-Sawyer College in New London, New Hampshire. Solid acting and skillful stagecraft held the sparse audience spellbound in the somewhat chilly theater.

Anna, estranged from her sea-going father since childhood, meets him in a New York bar. Delighted to be reunited with her, the father talks her into spending a few days with him on the barge of which he's the captain. She agrees, but things get complicated when several ship-wrecked sailors are rescued by the barge crew. One, an Irishman named Mat, falls head-over-heels for Anna.

High drama and dark humor fill the final acts when Mat's proposal of marriage forces Anna to reveal a shameful past, shocking Mat as well as her father. Katrina Ferguson as Anna, John Goodlin as her father, and Milan Dragicevich as Mat turn in stellar performances, more than doing justice to the fiery dialog, a challenge to actors in any O'Neill play.

"Anna Christie," in spite of its dark subject matter and harsh conflicts, in the end is more upbeat than most of O'Neill's work. You can leave the theater feeling good about it, especially when it's as well-acted as this production.