THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 9, 1995 TAG: 9502090067
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E6 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Theater Review
SOURCE: BY MONTAGUE GAMMON III, SPECIAL TO THE DAILY BREAK
LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines
PLAYS THAT GIVE rise to hit movies, such as ``On Golden Pond,'' are blessed with a reasonable guarantee of popularity. A well-known title will usually fill a playhouse, and this one should put plenty of bodies in the Virginia Repertory Theatre's seats, in its small auditorium beneath Chrysler Hall.
Such productions are also saddled, or even cursed, with expectations engendered by their cinematic versions. There is often an unfair assumption that the filmed interpretation of a character is definitive.
So it is with this show. Tom Harris has chosen to play the octogenarian Norman Thayer with a good bit less venom than one might expect. Indeed, one could even argue that he makes the old fellow kinder and gentler than the author's words require.
After all, this is a man who is so difficult to please that his only child addresses him by his first name rather than using any term of endearment such as ``Daddy,'' a man who bluntly says to that same adult offspring, ``I thought we just didn't like each other.''
Even if one thinks that Harris has erred on the side of kindness, one cannot say that his portrayal of the ``old poop'' - to use Mrs. Thayer's title for her crusty husband - lacks thought and consistency.
Both the character's and the actor's intellect are on display; possession of considerable intelligence is what sets Norman apart. It is what fuels and motivates his wit, whether that wit is caustic or not, and it is the loss of his intellectual faculties that Norman most fears.
One unquestionable value of Harris' approach is the idea that Norman is using his wit to camouflage his growing confusion. By playing word games with everyone else, he masks the tricks his own mind is beginning to play on him.
Yet this production is not one of a stellar single performance, but of tight ensemble acting. The interplay between Harris and James McDaniel 5th, between Harris and Sherman Edmondson and Mary Curro late in the play and between Harris and young Richard Brauer, is exemplary.
There is one hitch in this otherwise well-directed play. In several two-person scenes, director Raymond L. Brown Jr. has set his actors facing one another. Since the audience is in front of the stage, one cannot see facial expressions clearly when the actors are close together. And when two seated actors lean toward one another, they also cast shadows on each other's faces.
McDaniel plays daughter Chelsea's boyfriend with exceptional acuity. From his character's Dudley Doright heartiness when he first meets Norman, to his blunt willingness to confront the old curmudgeon on his own terms, McDaniel gives his best, most texture and most relaxed performance in recent memory. This is acting of which McDaniel should be especially proud.
Edmondson has the part of Chelsea, the divorced, childless and distant daughter. Like Harris and Mary Curro, she grows into her part as the play progresses. Once she hits her stride, she produces an easy, believable, rounded and enjoyable performance.
Curro's role as wife Ethel can be overshadowed by the flashier character of Norman, but she has a memorably sympathetic scene at the end of the play. Throughout she projects a sense of genuine warmth for this difficult man she still loves.
The real core of the play is the relationship between the cantankerous Norman and the young boy who is soon to be Chelsea's stepson. Richard Brauer turns in a smooth, mature performance as Billy.
Bob Sauls appears briefly, and amusingly, in a sort of comic relief role as local postman Charlie, a one-time paramour of Chelsea.
Brown, who also designed the lighting and the set, was assisted in directing by Russ Stine. Edmondson was responsible for the costumes, and the props were managed by Chris Yard. ILLUSTRATION: THEATER REVIEW
What: ``On Golden Pond,'' performed by the Virginia Repertory
Theatre
Where: Little Hall under Chrysler Hall in Norfolk
When: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday. Runs through
Feb. 18.
by CNB