Return to AARO 95-96
This play IS a sentimental journey that covers the 3-decade evolution of a son's feelings toward his Italian-American family, from funeral to funeral to funeral. Although it has some structural faults that may be characteristic of actor/playwrights, the script successfully ranges from ethnic humor to tearful tragedy in two acts. I'm sure that the latter touched me because my mother died last month, my father suffers from Alzheimer's, and my daughter tried to commit suicide last year.
Not being an opera afficionado, a capella arias did not add to the character or plot development for me. I did find the operatic recordings as believable background music for an Italian-American household, but the accents were spotty and sometimes unintelligible.
The set was interestingly designed by Jeffrey Thomson, who reused his raked stage from "Whispers in the Mind" where it was a theatrical artifact of the colonial period. Here along with the distorted furnishings, the set of the past represents the t(a)inted view of the son's memories. With the foreground set of a mobile home in the present placed on the stage apron, the raked set of the past behind it provided an unmistakable mechanism to switch between the present and the past. Unfortunately, the role of the mother is challenging because it does not have two actresses nor costume changes to distinguish between middle age and senility.
The cast was spotty. Rusty Ferracane was not as good as he was in "Bent". Nicholas Glaeser was comfortable as the narrator/son of the present. But what bothered me most was the absence of the sister from the son's adolescent memories, while in the present she is the antagonist. The fact that there is a young mother/neighbor in the past who does not contribute to the plot further adds to the annoyance.
In general, I thought the production was worthwhile, and provided this theatergoer from northern New Jersey a pleasant evening down memory lane.
Production details:
Italian Funerals and Other Festive Occasions by John Miranda
Phoenix Theater
254-2151
through 19 May 96
Return to AARO 95-96