"Cocktail Hour" at Long Wharf -- WASP Craft
Recognizable and familiar, four White Anglo-Saxon Protestants, characters within A. R. Gurney's "The Cocktail Hour" are affecting and just multi-dimensional enough to pique interest. Long Wharf Theater, in New Haven, revives the play which benefits from Kim Rubinstein's direction -- she pushes it forward. You might not wish to revisit a society which opens the curtain on: mixed drinks, repression of feelings, the power of the almighty dollar, and a kind of stylized dress which has been appropriate for any given decade since, say the 1950s. That said, this script still catches one off guard. Gurney is a fluent, observant writer and this particular production is winning.
John (Rob Campbell) arrives at his parents' home (in a small upstate New York hamlet) one stirling autumn Saturday in the mid-1970s to inform his father that a play he (John) has written will soon be staged in Manhattan. John's play and his life center about his belief that his father, Bradley (John Cunningham), never really loved him. John, now around forty, is vulnerable. His father proffers a check for twenty thousand dollars in an effort to divert the grown son from bringing the play to the city. Bradley also wishes his other son, Jigger, had come around.
Actress Mary Beth Peil plays Ann, mother and wife. She is the picture of aristocracy and hopes that John will listen to her suggestion that he convert the play into a book - since that form is far safer. We learn, during the second act, that while her children were growing, Ann was writing a six hundred plus page book which she ultimately destroyed.
Nina, John's sister (Ann Talman) has her own issues. She loves dogs to the point of obsession. Further, Nina is not thrilled when she learns that her character in John's play is quite minor. She pulls through and becomes helpful when the kitchen help ruins a pot roast -- and dinner.
The stage bears the grace and vision of scenic designer Michael Yeargan. He won the Tony Award for "A Light in the Piazza" a couple of years ago and was nominated for his set design, last year, for "Awake and Sing." Yeargan has been creating sets on Connecticut stages for years. No one who saw his luminous creation for "The Return of Martin Guerre" at Hartford Stage will ever forget it.
This time, he fashions ten white-framed windows along the lengthy rear wall of the living room (LW stage). We see bright yellows, oranges, and reds -- fall's colors in abstract form. The choice, assisted by Pat Collins' lighting, influences rather than dominates the show. Just outside the three walls, on the exterior of the room, rest fallen leaves -- similar in hue to the window images.
Candice Donnelly dresses the four men in appropriate sport coats; and the women wear modest, conservative, suitable outfits.
Andre Pluess provides tone-setting music which plays a few times during the performance but not concurrent to dialogue delivery.
Cunningham and Peil lead an excellent cast. I thought, for a time, that I had a problem with Talman's portrayal of Nina. On second thought, however, it's my antipathy toward the character which is upsetting. In other words, Talman probably is doing a fine job. Campbell, as John, gets the WASP persona. His brown tousled hair makes for a precise look.
I attended a midweek matinee and almost every member of the audience could be considered an elderly citizen. They laughed often, catching Gurney's sneaky humor and innuendo.
"The Cocktail Hour" may be a period piece. That period, for better or worse, remains with us.
The play continues through Feb. 4. www.longwharf.org; (203) 787-4284.
John (Rob Campbell) arrives at his parents' home (in a small upstate New York hamlet) one stirling autumn Saturday in the mid-1970s to inform his father that a play he (John) has written will soon be staged in Manhattan. John's play and his life center about his belief that his father, Bradley (John Cunningham), never really loved him. John, now around forty, is vulnerable. His father proffers a check for twenty thousand dollars in an effort to divert the grown son from bringing the play to the city. Bradley also wishes his other son, Jigger, had come around.
Actress Mary Beth Peil plays Ann, mother and wife. She is the picture of aristocracy and hopes that John will listen to her suggestion that he convert the play into a book - since that form is far safer. We learn, during the second act, that while her children were growing, Ann was writing a six hundred plus page book which she ultimately destroyed.
Nina, John's sister (Ann Talman) has her own issues. She loves dogs to the point of obsession. Further, Nina is not thrilled when she learns that her character in John's play is quite minor. She pulls through and becomes helpful when the kitchen help ruins a pot roast -- and dinner.
The stage bears the grace and vision of scenic designer Michael Yeargan. He won the Tony Award for "A Light in the Piazza" a couple of years ago and was nominated for his set design, last year, for "Awake and Sing." Yeargan has been creating sets on Connecticut stages for years. No one who saw his luminous creation for "The Return of Martin Guerre" at Hartford Stage will ever forget it.
This time, he fashions ten white-framed windows along the lengthy rear wall of the living room (LW stage). We see bright yellows, oranges, and reds -- fall's colors in abstract form. The choice, assisted by Pat Collins' lighting, influences rather than dominates the show. Just outside the three walls, on the exterior of the room, rest fallen leaves -- similar in hue to the window images.
Candice Donnelly dresses the four men in appropriate sport coats; and the women wear modest, conservative, suitable outfits.
Andre Pluess provides tone-setting music which plays a few times during the performance but not concurrent to dialogue delivery.
Cunningham and Peil lead an excellent cast. I thought, for a time, that I had a problem with Talman's portrayal of Nina. On second thought, however, it's my antipathy toward the character which is upsetting. In other words, Talman probably is doing a fine job. Campbell, as John, gets the WASP persona. His brown tousled hair makes for a precise look.
I attended a midweek matinee and almost every member of the audience could be considered an elderly citizen. They laughed often, catching Gurney's sneaky humor and innuendo.
"The Cocktail Hour" may be a period piece. That period, for better or worse, remains with us.
The play continues through Feb. 4. www.longwharf.org; (203) 787-4284.
posted by Fred Sokol at 5:45 AM
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