Dramaworks’ version of On Golden Pond returns to what the playwright, Ernest Thompson,
originally intended, a less sentimental, more honest rendering of what we all ultimately
face: aging, and as with many families, disconnection and hopefully
reconciliation. While this is the stuff
of most great American drama, the playwright inextricably links humor and
pathos, leading to the ultimate question: what does it mean to be? This is a tender rendition, performed by an
interracial cast under the direction and inspiration of Paul Stancato.
Novelist and environmentalist Wallace Stegner once said
“we live too shallowly in too many places.”
Not Norman and Ethel Thayer who for 48 years have made their summer home
on Golden Pond in Maine the bulwark of their lives, raising their only child,
Chelsea, during their summers away from Wilmington. Dramaworks’ striking set characterizes the rusticity
of lake side living as well as years of memories, both happy and hurtful. It is in some state of disrepair. Take that cranky screen door which is always
falling down for instance, good for laughs but serving as a metaphor for aging
and neglect.
Norman is a retired university literature professor on
the eve of his 80th birthday.
He has his routines in the cabin which mostly revolve around arranging
his fishing hats, and curmudgeonly railing at the annoyance du jour, but now he’s
also having memory difficulties, perhaps the early signs of dementia. He’s convinced that his impending status as
an octogenarian will mark his last year at Golden Pond. “Oh shut up,” the ballast
in his life, devoted wife Ethel says to all that death talk. And, then there is Chelsea, a chip off the
old block of Norman. They’ve become ever
more remote with Ethel as the reconciler.
A touching secondary story-line involves Chelsea’s
once-upon-a-time boyfriend when she was growing up --a “townie” -- who is now
the mailman, delivering the mail by boat to the residents around the pond. Charlie Martin is still in love with Chelsea,
but while that ship has sailed, he gives the play many nostalgic moments as we
glimpse at those yesterdays.
The rising action of the play is a letter that declares
Chelsea will be arriving from California with her fiancé, Bill Ray to celebrate
Norman’s 80th birthday.
Unannounced is that they are bringing along Bill’s 15 year old son,
Billy. And as the first act ends, we
learn that Billy will be left with Chelsea’s parents for a month at Golden Pond
as Bill and Chelsea travel through Europe.
The clock is wound and the stage is set for change.
With the opening of Act II, we find that Norman and Billy
have created interesting new lives for themselves during that stay. Then with Chelsea’s return and at Ethel’s urging,
Norman and Chelsea finally have their moment of acquiescent truth. Bill and Chelsea were married while in
Belgium. The screen door has apparently been
fixed. And so life moves on in
unexpected ways.
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| Pat Bowie, John Felix, Casey Butler, Karen Stephens, Jim Ballard |
Director Paul Stancato makes the most of the play’s many
bittersweet comic opportunities, having the actors pause for a beat,
simultaneously capturing those humorous and heartrending moments. He sets the play in 1988 before the ubiquity
of cell phones and the associated diversions of the Internet. Stancato is an
accomplished musical director as well and he finds rhythms in the play, almost
pacing it as a piece of music with an Andante tempo.
John Felix excels as Norman, who persistently laments
about how little time there is in his future. He wears “curmudgeon” as a badge of honor, and
yet Felix’s interpretation makes him likeable, even lovable, approaching the Aristotelian
definition of a tragic hero, evoking a sense of pity and fear. After all, Norman’s fate of physical and
cognitive decline is one which awaits most who live long enough.
Felix seizes the opportunities to embellish his death obsession
with laughs, the perfect tonic for his depression. He is particularly effective during those
moments. He explains to Ethel that this
summer he’s been casually looking for a job because “I’m in the market for a
last hurrah.” To which Ethel responds
“Why can’t you just pick berries and catch fish and read books, and enjoy this
sweet, sweet time?”
Here the dark comedy becomes serious, Felix’s demeanor
changing to a heartfelt confession: “Do
you want to know why I came back so fast with my little bucket? I got to the end of our lane, and I…couldn’t
remember where the old town road was. I
went a little way into the woods, and nothing looked familiar, not one tree. And it scared me half to death. So I came
running back home here, to you, to see your pretty face, and to feel that I was
safe. That I was still me.”
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| Pat Bowie, John Felix |
Pat Bowie’s Ethel is the “great woman” behind her now
declining man. She lovingly replies
“Well, you’re safe, you old poop. And
you’re definitely still you….” Bowie carries
a heavy burden of Ethel’s constant sacrifice and devotion to the love of her
life, trying to keep his thoughts of death under control: “I swear you just get more morbid every year.”
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| Watching the Loons |
She is always listening for the loons, a metaphor for
life and in her mind capable of speaking to her. While she is the positive to Norman’s
negative, Bowie’s portrayal of Ethel shows vulnerability as the years and the
estrangement between her husband and daughter have taken their toll on her as
well.
Karen Stephens as Chelsea longs for love from her father
but the chasm which has built over the years seems insurmountable. Stephens brings sublimated pain into her
role, expecting so little from her father, accustomed now to call her mother,
Mommy, and her father, Norman. She even
sets up her fiancé so he is already on guard before meeting Norman: “Bill, you
want to visit the men’s room before you go through the shock of meeting my
father?”
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| Paul Tei, Karen Stephens |
Chelsea still feels “like a little girl” whenever she returns
to Golden Pond. Stephens channels that
pent up anger saying to her mother, “I act like a big person everywhere
else. I do. I’m in charge of Los Angeles. There’s just
something about coming back here that makes me feel like a little fat
girl.” She goes on to accuse her mother:
“Where were you all that time? You never
bailed me out.… You don’t know what it’s
like being reminded how worthless you are every time that old son of a bitch
crosses your path.”
Ethel does not back down, even slapping her daughter:
“That old son of a bitch happens to be my husband. I’m sorry, Chelsea. That he’s not always kind. It’s not…always easy for me either. You’re such a nice person, can’t you think of
something nice to say?” With that she
plants a seed for reconciliation between husband and daughter.
Jim Ballard comically plays Bill Ray, Chelsea’s fiancé, nervously
stumbling into the cabin with their suitcases, convinced he’s seen a bear. His first encounter with Norman is especially
amusing, Ballard playing the foil to Felix’s Norman, clearly ill at ease, not
only in meeting Norman but left alone while the others go down to see the lake.
He tries to bring up the sleeping
arrangements, his expecting to sleep with Chelsea while visiting though they
are not yet married (after all, it was the times and these are two vastly
different generations). This results in
an awkward but funny give and take.
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| Pat Bowie, Jim Ballard |
But as Bill has been forewarned about Norman, Ballard
turns serious, even admitting to the similarities between Norman and his
daughter. His monologue is in contrast
to his initial unease. “Chelsea told me
all about you, about how you like to have a good time with people’s heads. She does it, too, sometimes, and sometimes I
can get into it. Sometimes not. I just want you to know that I’m very good at
recognizing crap when I hear it.”
This “speech” as Norman calls it begrudgingly commands
Norman’s respect. Ballard has appeared
on the Dramaworks stage twelve times and shows his gift to deliver both
dramatic as well as the comedic moments.
Paul Tei plays Charlie, a local who has long loved
Chelsea, motoring around the lake in the summer to deliver the mail. Tei is perfect for the part, his infectious
goofy laugh reaching out to the audience.
He poignantly relates his memories to Chelsea about her camp years, when
he used to help his Uncle deliver the mail, and when they came by the camp. “I’d swing the bag out onto the dock, and then
I’d pick up the outgoing mail, and somewhere in there, I’d look for you. And you’d always be standing in the back,
kind of all alone. And you’d smile at
me, and I’d feel like I was the best thing going.”
It’s such a wistful memory exchange between Chelsea and
Charlie, and so tenderly delivered by Tei.
This leads to Chelsea and Ethel singing the camp song, which concludes
with “But we’ll remember our years, On Golden Pond.” Both mother and daughter
attended Camp Koochakiyia as kids, another hat tip to the passage of time and
continuity.
Young Casey Butler last appeared at Dramaworks in the challenging
play Acadia. He is already a seasoned pro. Now as Billy Ray, Bill’s fifteen year old son,
he expresses the unbounded energy and innocence of youth.
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| John Felix, Casey Butler |
When he and Norman first meet, it’s as if two different
species are in shock looking each other over, an antediluvian confronting a Marty
McFly. Ultimately, both are redeemed by
one another. He is the grandchild Norman
never had, and Norman is the teacher who will make a difference in Billy’s life. Norman is now a different man with a reason
to live. Casey’s portrayal of Billy as Norman’s
lifesaver is spot on.
Dramaworks’ production is firmly grounded in spectacular
scenic design by Bill Clark, his PBD debut.
It evokes all the themes of the play, but in particular the Thayer’s
love of Golden Pond, its woods, and its wildlife. The wood pillars of the structure seem to
reach for the sky, the forest in the background, the solid stone mantelpiece
displaying the age of its construction, 1917, presumably the year Ethel’s
father built the cabin. Ethel’s toy
doll, Elmer, now 65 years old, sits on the mantle shelf along with photographs,
and many others strewn about the living room.
It’s an award-winning set, a perfect backdrop for the action on stage.
Brad Pawlak’s sound design reproduces the eerie calls of the
Loons across the lake. Add the sounds of
the forest, the fluttering of bird wings, even the insidious insects, Charlie’s
boat approaching, as well as the rising wind in September, all so evocative of
a summer in Maine. Musical interludes
such as “Moonglow” and “Sentimental Journey” during scene changes contribute to
the ambiance.
Lighting design by Donald Edmund Thomas captures the time
changes, from the deep dark of night to the blazing sun off the pond, as well
as enhancing the changing emotions on stage.
Resident award-winning costume designer Brian O’Keefe emphasizes
the casual dress of country living, as well as Bill’s comical 1980’s California
style jacket and pants. His rendering of
Billy when he first arrives indeed reminded me of Marty McFly in Back to the Future. It is an amusing touch by O’Keefe.
Veteran Stage Manager, James Danford, keeps things moving
along, all props in place for the five scene changes in the play.
Dramaworks’ production of On Golden Pond is a deeply satisfying play, perhaps the perfect
tonic for our times and the theatre company’s traditional audience.
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| Norman and Ethel say goodbye to Golden Pond for the season |
