The next morning we drove to Amherst to visit our friends
Art and Sydelle who are renting a house near their daughter and her family.
After meeting them for lunch at Atkins Farms, they took us to the Yiddish Book
Center which houses the largest collection of Yiddish books in North America on
the campus of Hampshire College.
It was
one man’s remarkable vision to preserve over one million of these treasured
books. It was truly amazing to see this
literature being reclaimed and now digitized by a team of volunteers. I had no idea that there was such an extensive
trove of Yiddish literature. When we
departed from our friends, Ann and I decided to revisit The Emily Dickinson Museum,
one of my favorite places in Amherst and once again signed up for their 60
minutes tour. Since we were last there
some of the rooms have been further restored, particularly Emily’s bedroom
where she spent her days writing in a bright corner overlooking much of
downtown Amherst.
Before the tour I had some fun reciting some of the poems
I know by heart in unison with one of the docents. I also chatted with a Chinese woman who had
breathlessly arrived, fearing she was late for the last tour of the day, having
driven three hours with her husband and child.
She was no stranger to Emily Dickinson’s poems, having translating many
into Chinese for publication there. We
chatted about the similarities between Dickinson’s and Chinese poetry, which on
their surfaces boast simplicity, with deep, meaningful undercurrents.
We returned to our hotel to freshen up for dinner with
Art and Sydelle, their daughter Maddy, and her young and precocious son, Eli. Unfortunately there was a massive
thunderstorm on the way and the restaurant where we were to meet for dinner was
closed that night. Serendipitously, we ended
up meeting everyone at a wonderful Chinese restaurant where we ate family style,
happily sharing several delicious platters of food!
Bright and early the following day, we were on our way to
The Clark Art Institute in Williamstown situated on a 140 acre campus,
surrounded by the Taconic, Green Mountain and Berkshire ranges. This was our first visit and we were very interested
in seeing the new very modern entrance addition and 1 acre reflecting pool set
amid expansive lawns.
But in truth we
made this special trip because they have just installed the first ever exhibit on
“ Van Gogh and Nature”, using works on loan from some of the most noted van
Gogh Collections in the world. These
paintings were primarily from the last 10 years of his life and were showcased
in five rooms in the new wing of the Museum.
Getting there proved more difficult than we could have
imagined. It was all back roads to Williamstown from Amherst, roads I normally
love to travel, but the bitter winter had left its mark on New England. It seems every other turn was blocked with
detours because of roadwork and at one point we were having difficulty getting there. So we arrived about an hour later than we had
hoped but luckily got one of the last parking spaces within walking distance to
the museum. The entrance reminds me of
the monolith from the film 2001 – a granite enigma – trying to figure out how
to get in!
Then there was the permanent collection of priceless
French Impressionists, artwork and sculptures.
As moving as the Van Gogh exhibit was, I liked the permanent collection
as much, painters I personally relate to, particularly the powerful seascapes
of Winslow Homer and the scenes of the American West by Frederick Remington. Ann, predictably and understandably was
enthralled by the French Impressionist paintings, the Renoir collection in the
permanent collection in particular and lingered there.
Perhaps the high point for me, though, was the display of
the grandest Steinway ever made, the Model D Pianoforte Steinway which was
commissioned by financier Henry Marquand in 1885.
In between seeing the Van Gogh and the permanent
collection, we paused for a wonderful lunch at one of the Clark Institute
restaurants. By mid afternoon we started
to think about the long ride back to Norwalk, half the distance on local roads
and again we had to zig and zag, making it a long and grueling four hour trip
home.
Only two nights later we had tickets to the Westport Country
Playhouse to see A R Gurney’ s Love and Money,
a world premiere.
I’ve written about the Westport Country Playhouse before,
a venerable landmark in Westport since the early 1930’s. Just one look at some of the old billboards
and memorabilia in the lobby evokes deep and fond memories. We’ve been going
there for some 45 years now, and while it has changed, it has changed to stay
the same, to present plays of meaning to the community.
For many years Paul Newman’s restaurant, The Changing
Room, stood adjacent to the playhouse (both Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward
were active in the theater’s success).
Now Positano -- which had been near the beach -- moved into that space
and Ann and I had dinner there before the show, an enjoyable dining experience.
What better place to premier A.R. Gurney’s Love and Money than the Westport Country
Playhouse, near the center of the universe of the play’s subject, the enigma of
the WASP? Cheever had defined the very
species and Gurney has now attempted to dramatize its fading years of glory.
Gurney has been heavily influenced by Cheever and in fact
as a tribute to the great short story writer he created a dramatization of some
of his stories some twenty years ago, A
Cheever Evening, one that I read when I was working on my own dramatization
of some Raymond Carver stories.
Gurney used more than a dozen Cheever short stories to create
his vision of what Cheever might have composed himself if he were a
dramatist. I’ve never seen the play
performed but maybe it will be revived on the heels of Gurney’s new play. Cheever and Gurney are students of this
privileged, melancholic, frequently inebriated class, one to which it is time
to say goodbye.
Unfortunately the play is not primetime ready yet and
although the cast includes the consummate actress Maureen Anderman, who not
long ago we had seen at Dramaworks in A
Delicate Balance, her presence is not enough to save what we thought was a
very contrived plot intended to mark the passing of the WASP species. Unlike
Cheever, whose characters mostly aspired to money or had the pretense of money,
this is about real money and how it alters relationships.
Cornelia Cunningham (Maureen Anderman) feels tainted with
loads of WASP money from her deceased husband.
Her two children had directly or indirectly been destroyed by their
wealth and/or alcoholism, and she is determined to leave most of her money to
charity. Against the advice of her
attorney, Harvey Abel (“ably” played by Joe Paulik), she has no intent to leave
the money to her two "zombie" grandchildren and then, suddenly -- a
young black man arrives on her doorstep claiming to be the child of her
deceased daughter – and thus another grandchild has been added to the mix. Let the drama and comedy begin! – or at least
attempt to begin. From there a number
of non sequiturs that don’t seem to be organic to the plot are thrown at the
audience, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Cole Porter, and a number of zingers at the
encroaching political oligarchy and foibles of modern day life.
Cole Porter of course is emblematic of the WASP culture
and a couple of his songs are suddenly introduced as a young Julliard student,
Jessica Worth (Kahyun Kim), comes to inspect Cornelia’s player piano which is
programmed to play only Porter, Jessica bursting into song. The young black man, Walter Williams (played
by Gabriel Brown) who is after his own fortune, claims he is nicknamed “Scott”
because of his love of Fitzgerald (who ironically lived in Westport briefly
with Zelda) and in particular his affection for The Great Gatsby.
While Love and
Money is billed as a world premiere production, it is a play in
development, gearing up for an off-Broadway run at the Signature Theatre. It needs work -- an organic fluidity that
seems to be lacking and a more believable plot.
In the program notes Gurney says at the age of 84, I assumed this play would probably be my last. As its various characters leave the stage at
the end, I felt I was figuratively going with them. But now that the excitement of an actual
production is taking place, I am reminded of an adage from the Jewish culture,
which is in many was replacing us: “Wasps go without saying goodbye. Jews say goodbye and won’t leave.” So now, in
my golden years, with perhaps another play or two already churning around in my
head, I’ve decided to be Jewish. Let us hope one of our great social-comedic
playwrights has a few more plays up his sleeve, and improves the present
work. Perhaps he should reread his own A Cheever Evening?
To conclude our busy week, Ann’s niece and nephew Regina
and Angelo visited with their growing children, Forest and Serena last weekend. We haven’t seen them in a year and a half –
what a difference time makes when kids are approaching their early teens. Jonathan and Anna were here as well, for
lunch and then a boat ride on a beautiful day.
