"Children" - A.R. Gurney Chronicler of WASPS Off Broadway
Children
Examiner
Sandi Durell
October 28, 2011
TACT (The Actors Company Theatre) a resident company currently housed at the Beckett on Theatre Row, has launched the first professional production of "Children" since 1976. All those emotionally controlled WASPS out at their beach house over the 4th of July, 1970, on an Island somewhere off Massachusetts, are matching wits and learning about relationships as they break the shackles that bind them to their White Anglo-Saxon Presbyterian gentility.
If children rule the roost, then the youngest, Pokey (a name and major presence we never see), is King. Mother (Darrie Lawrence) has gathered the family inviting all her children, including daughter Barbara (Margaret Nichols) and her brood (Barbara is a divorcee), son Randy (Richard Thieriot) and his wife Jane and their children. Nothing remains as it was; the world has changed and it's especially difficult for these people, steeped in their own cultural rules and controls, to throw off their chains, break out of the rigidity and morph into a new world of values. It's always been a peck for a kiss and a handshake unlike that Italian family . . . undemonstrative WASPS.
Barbara, with her sense of entitlement and too-many cocktails approach, has already begun her process of rebellion involved in an affair with someone who once mowed their lawn, but is now a home builder on the Island. Is there a financial reward stoking these coals? Even Mother, with her elegant, stoic resolve, has longed to break free, their father having died while swimming (we're not sure if it was a suicide) and has announced she will be marrying Uncle Bill, the usher at her wedding years back. But her pull is strong as she desperately wants to maintain her roots, making the drama of the final scene seem like a new dawn.
Unruffled Jane, disenchanted with her marriage to Randy, and Barbara are both enthralled and jealous watching Pokey's wife, Miriam, a liberal-free soul Jew, who doesn't care whether their kids drink coca-cola with lunch rather than milk. Maybe it has to do with that Jewish rule about no milk with meat! They just want to be more like her. Randy, with his never-grow-up qualities, just wants to win at tennis at any costs. And the unseen Pokey makes the rules for everyone. After a while, I wished Pokey was an actual character in the play since he is a constant reference in the script. He is the glue that holds it all together, dragging up the past, maintaining a constant connection to the family roots; holding on to father's personal items that he quietly doles out to various family members.
Each of the actors is extremely suited to their roles guided by the attentiveness of director Scott Alan Evans, capturing the biting wit and compassion imbued in the writing. The beach front oasis veranda is the perfect setting by Brett J. Banakis aided by the subtle lighting design by Bradley King.